Modifications to Vintage Baseball Card Sets' Year(s) of Issue

[Brian-Chidester]

Originally Posted by Leon

I don't own this T215-1 Griffith anymore(and took the T206 scan from ebay). The T215-1 belongs to another board member but it was in my collection for years. You can see the background shading be different......however it is more pronounced (much more) on different cards. I am not sure this isn't just a printing plate issue though. Even regardless of this I have never heard T215 be talked about as being T206.....as the T213-1 has..
best regards

ps..btw Brian- as you are throwing out different scenarios about different issues I applaud you for it. I am the type that thinks everything should be questioned and inspected . Now, about an actual change, I am much slower.

Thanks, Leon.

In truth, I actually see no way that these designations will ever be changed. So ensconsed are they in the trading, grading and pricing of these cards, I can't imagine wiping the slate clean of their past and getting everyone in the hobby to agree on a new designation.

But again, I was just throwing it out there with regards to T215-1. I have never owned one myself and know very little about the series besides what I've read in Burdick's book and have seen at card shows, on eBay and in auction catalogues. To my eyes, it just looked like the same thing that had happened with Coupon also happened with Red Cross. That being that the 1st series was printed between 1910-12, with the same fronts as T206, just distributed in areas not touched by the other cigarette distributers. My gut feeling about both T213-1 and T215-1 is that they would have been T206 back variants had there not been the second series (for both) and the third series (for T213). In other words, Red Cross and Coupon would be like Uzit or American Beauty.