"The Unauthenticatables"

[Big Six]

I have a built in affection for Pryor McElveen...his was the first T card I ever owned and I recently replaced that long lost card with the one below...

Now this may be the dumb question/observation, but is that not his "signature" on the card? Would assume that the T205 set could serve as a good marker for what obscure players sigs looked like...at least for the N.L. teams that incorporated sigs in the card design...

[T206Collector]

Originally Posted by Big Six

Now this may be the dumb question/observation, but is that not his "signature" on the card? Would assume that the T205 set could serve as a good marker for what obscure players sigs looked like...at least for the N.L. teams that incorporated sigs in the card design...

Definitely not a dumb question, and you are right that the T205 makers clearly did rely on the players' actual signatures in making their designs, albeit by adding a little flare. So, I think it does help, but is probably not definitive.

Here's four examples, where the players helped us out by signing right above their names:

[Big Six]

Wheat's card was where I got the idea...my thought is that the n.l. Guys probably signed something (contract, scrap paper, whatever) that was used in the creation of their card...if it was a formal document, it might be the more formal version of their signature as opposed to what was given out for autograph requests...in fact the use of initials for guys with longer names makes me think they knew the exemplar would appear on the small t card....all speculation on my part but fun nonetheless.