1959 Topps Uncut Sheets?

[Keviron]

One of the keys to understanding the 1959 Topps set is the arrangement of the cards on the printing plates. The arrangement could help to explain a lot about the set, from variations to condition scarcity. It is surprising how many “interesting” cards fall on sheet borders and corners. For example, notoriously difficult 572 Billy Pierce All Star is the top left card on the series 7 sheet and frequently messed-with 416 Haywood Sullivan is the bottom right card on the series 6 sheet.

Unfortunately, proof sheets or otherwise complete sheets are rare. Or maybe I haven’t been lucky enough to stumble across them all. From what I have been able to assemble, I believe that toppcat at The Topps Archives blog is correct in that there were 7 separate printing runs.

Can you help me in my research to plate this set? Do you have a scan or photograph of a strip, panel, or sheet of 1959 Topps cards? Is this information compiled somewhere else already? I would also be happy to share the data I have so far; contact me.

Here is what I have:

Series / Number of Cards / Format / Status
1 / 110 / Sheet of 110(?) / no info
2 / 88 / 2 sheets of 132, 11x12(?) / 56+ cards, partial sheet
3 / 88 / 2 sheets of 132, 11x12(?) / 44 cards (1/2) complete
4 / 88 / 2 sheets of 132, 11x12 / complete
5 / 66 / Sheet of 66, 11x6 / complete
6 / 66 / Sheet of 66, 11x6(?) / no info
7 / 66 / Sheet of 66, 11x6 / complete

[Rich Klein]

From what I have seen over the years (no sheets) that there are different print levels for cards in the Higher numbers and I would love to see sheets to confirm my suspicions at all levels on 59.

Rich

[SMPEP]

Sorry for the bad photo!

[ALR-bishop]

Great sheet SM, is it yours ? 1959 is a sentimental favorite for me as it was the first set I finished

[Keviron]

That is a gorgeous sheet, and it looks great in the frame. Wow.

[SMPEP]

Thanks! The sheet is mine - but the photo hides how bad the condition is. The sheet is ripped in two (at the Busby row), and there is another major crease in the bottom Musial row, but it's still the best I have!

Cheers,
Patrick

[Kevvyg1026]

My understanding of the 1959 series printings is similar to what you posted. I would add the following:

Series 1 should haveone slit (half sheet) with 10 different rows plus two rows printed a 2nd time, while the other slit will also have the ten different rows, with two other rows printed twice. This gives rise to 4 rows printed 3x each and 6 rows printed 2x each. To my knowledge, there are salesman samples and a few miscuts, but no one has yet attempted the re-construct a virtual sheet for this series.

Series 2 has 88 cards in it, so each card will be printed 3x across the entire sheet. One slit will have the 8 different rows followed by the top 4 rows printed a 2nd time. The second slit will have a similar pattern but it is the bottom 4 rows printed 2x on the slit. So the pattern goes like slit1 - A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H while slit 2 goes like E, F, G, H, A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H. There is enough information available to reconstruct the entire sheet.

Series 3 and series 4 both have 88 unique cards and will follow the same pattern as series 2. I have not seen any uncut material fr series 4,but as shwn in another post, there is a 44 card panel for series 3 and there are a few miscuts around. I am not aware that anyone has attempted to reconstruct a virtual sheet for eoither series.

Series 5, 6, and 7 have 66 cards in each series, so the pattern for each half sheet should have each of the 66 cards printed 2x each while the 2nd sit will be identical to the 1st slit. Enough info exists for both series 5 & 7 to reconstruct the entire sheet, but I have only seen miscuts for series 6 and have not attempted to reconstruct that sheet.