Thanks for the comments so far guys...I know I'll definitely enjoy this discussion as it unfolds
Bob - Yep, still have my "silverback" e94 (pictured below). There were other colors on that card however, such as brown on the hat and "flesh tones" on the face. The only color missing was the background itself. It seems that that card just simply missed the red color pass, blue color pass or whatever color that card was supposed to be. I always kind of thought all those orange e94s were basically the same sort of printing goof.
I will say that I'm 100% certain the e98s are not faded for the reasons I outlined above. These are just too dark and too detailed to be "faded".
I do not think they are true black and whites as they weren't intended to be this way although on some of the cards, that was indeed the end result. Like some of the others are saying, I think these are the result of a faulty print run, a "test run" or printer's scrap if you will. I think that what happened is there was a sheet of cards (maybe more than one even) that were going through for their color runs. After the first pass, someone noticed that the color didn't show up clearly (like on the Chase) or not at all (several of the others) and that the cards were at that point scrapped.
e94Doolan.jpg