1888 R & S Artistic mini-find

[drc]

A great thing about die cuts like this is that they're hard for someone to trim.

For those who have never seen one in person before, they're straight foreword to authenticate as they are embossed and the fronts are very glossy. Plus, I've never heard of anyone making reprints.

[Runscott]

Originally Posted by drc

A great thing about die cuts like this is that they're hard for someone to trim.

For those who have never seen one in person before, they're straight foreword to authenticate as they are embossed and the fronts are very glossy. Plus, I've never heard of anyone making reprints.

David, I had never seen these before and they were so new-looking that I thought they were modern. What gave it away was that some of the other die cuts still had the connecting pieces attached.

[drc]

For whatever reason embossed scraps from back then tend to be glossy. Something to do with manufacture. Perhaps they added a varnish so the shape was kept. Flat scraps and trade cards tend to matte.

I've never seen forgers attempt to duplicate embossment. Too much work and detail. They either leave out the embossment or forge cards that aren't embossed.

And the R & S are the double whammy of embossed and die cut. So much easier to forge those flat rectangular 1952 Topps Mantles.