T206 production/printing questions/comments

[tedzan]

Originally Posted by caramelcard

Anybody have any thoughts on this question from the first post?


"If they were printed at the same place, then where did the overstrikes come from and how can they be explained? I guess it's possible but I doubt the card backs were printed with the intended distribution factory on the back and then struck again before they left the same place where they were printed."

They were printing the backs with factory numbers and then overstriking them there too before they left?

Rob

This OLD MILL scrap with the inverted "Factory #649" overstrike printed on it (indicative of the printer's test) prior to overstriking the Sweet Cap 150 Factory #30 cards should convince
you of the fact that the overstrikes were printed at American Litho.

The overstrikes were not printed at any Tobacco factory. These factories employed low-paid employees that operated cigarette rolling machinery and in many instances manually stuffed
the cigarettes into their packs.






TED Z

[caramelcard]

Ted,

That card actually makes no sense to me at all and there's about two
of them in the world so it doesn't really prove much. In fact, there's no reason why they would restrike that back.

Also, that doesn't look to me like the same thickness in font and the same color as the SC backs.

What is your opinion on why they were overstriking the cards?

Were they printing them and then deciding very quickly that they need to go to another factory and then overstriking them?

Rob

[caramelcard]

And I do think that it makes total sense that the fronts and backs were both printed in the same place, I'm just curious about the purpose of the overstriking.

The "low-paid employees that operated cigarette rolling machinery" could've stamped the backs of the T212s and T209s.

Whoever did the SC overstrikes didn't exactly do a great job either.

Rob

[tedzan]

Rob

Here is my Willetts card which has a Factory #42 overstrike. I show you this one since the overstrike is offset and clearly reveals that this card was originally printed with a Factory #30
back. The subjects in the 350/460 series (except the 6 super-prints) that were printed with SWEET CAPORAL 350-460 Factory #30 were never issued. Instead, American Litho. modified
them with the Factory #42 overprint in order to ship them to the Durham plant in North Carolina. We can only surmise that this was done due to the impending divesture of the American
Tobacco Co. in 1911.







TED Z

[steve B]

Originally Posted by caramelcard

Ted,

That card actually makes no sense to me at all and there's about two
of them in the world so it doesn't really prove much. In fact, there's no reason why they would restrike that back.

Also, that doesn't look to me like the same thickness in font and the same color as the SC backs.

What is your opinion on why they were overstriking the cards?

Were they printing them and then deciding very quickly that they need to go to another factory and then overstriking them?

Rob

It makes as much sense as any other printers scrap.

They use sheets to setup the press.
Sometimes they use new sheets.
Sometimes they use sheets with defects.

So a sheet used to setup the 649 OP was used to also setup and test brown OM.

Pretty simple.

The 649 overprints and the 42 overprints are for different reasons.

The F42s are as Ted says probably due to changing the site of production, consolidating it from factories 25 and 30 to factory 42. Preparation for the breakup of the trust seems a likely reason.

F649 ---I think was probably either a decision to produce some SC in that factory maybe because of a problem in another plant or to catch up to an increase in demand. 649 was probably less busy than the other plants.

My alternate theory is that SC production has something to do with Plank. The existing packing logs show a specific notation "for other than philadelphia area" which at the least indicates regional distribution.

As a temporary thing they wouldn't have had cards made with 649 backs for a brand that 649 usually didn't produce. The simplest thing is to have ones made for a different factory overprinted.


Steve B