Thoughts on this 1925 Gehrig

[bcbgcbrcb]

From the independent research that I have done based on the printing font, and it’s been a while now, there was no reason why the Gehrig W590 would not have been printed in 1925 considering the player/team identifications of the other 9 cards from the Gehrig strip of 10 that I have seen. Could these have continued to have been printed beyond 1925, sure, but the same can be said for numerous other vintage issues. You kind of have to draw the line somewhere with this kind of stuff or you will drive yourself crazy. Could the Gehrig also have been printed on a different panel of 10? Maybe, I have never seen another different one though.

To me the W590 has an upside and a downside when compared to the 1925 Exhibit. It obviously fits the definition of a card (although strip cards may not be as popular as caramel, tobacco, etc.) much more precisely than the Exhibit, which is essentially a blank backed postcard. The downside is that it is categorized as a 1925-31 issue, for what that’s worth, and I think it can be pretty safely assumed that cards from this series were issued at least over multiple years so the date can never be as definitive as the ‘25 Exhibit. (But who’s to say that the Exhibit Supply Co. didn’t have leftover cards from 1925 and refilled their vending machines with them in 1926?) Anyone willing to bet their life on that not happening? You get the picture.

[Exhibitman]

Originally Posted by bcbgcbrcb

From the independent research that I have done based on the printing font, and it’s been a while now, there was no reason why the Gehrig W590 would not have been printed in 1925 considering the player/team identifications of the other 9 cards from the Gehrig strip of 10 that I have seen. Could these have continued to have been printed beyond 1925, sure, but the same can be said for numerous other vintage issues. You kind of have to draw the line somewhere with this kind of stuff or you will drive yourself crazy. Could the Gehrig also have been printed on a different panel of 10? Maybe, I have never seen another different one though.

To me the W590 has an upside and a downside when compared to the 1925 Exhibit. It obviously fits the definition of a card (although strip cards may not be as popular as caramel, tobacco, etc.) much more precisely than the Exhibit, which is essentially a blank backed postcard. The downside is that it is categorized as a 1925-31 issue, for what that’s worth, and I think it can be pretty safely assumed that cards from this series were issued at least over multiple years so the date can never be as definitive as the ‘25 Exhibit. (But who’s to say that the Exhibit Supply Co. didn’t have leftover cards from 1925 and refilled their vending machines with them in 1926?) Anyone willing to bet their life on that not happening? You get the picture.

I would love to see your research, Phil. Please publish it and explain your conclusion. If you already did, I guess I missed it, so please post a link to it.

[Lorewalker]

Here is one of the links from here on the general dating of the W590...
https://www.net54baseball.com/showthread.php?t=185679

I could have sworn there was another.

[Lorewalker]

Here is a link to a 10 card strip with Gehrig...

https://huntauctions.com/phone/image...140&lot_num=18

My edit is to add that I am not sure what, if anything, can be inferred from the boxers on that strip but with the inclusion of Hank Gowdy as a NY Giant, it closely supports Phil's theory. Gowdy was on the Giants for a minute in 1911 but would return as a back up catcher in the 1923-25 seasons.

[bcbgcbrcb]

Adam:

Any research that I did regarding the W590’s, including the Gehrig and Lindstrom cards as potential rookies was probably a decade or more ago when I was doing the HOF rookie card collection. Without recalling all of the details, I believe that the set was issued in two separate printings, one during the first year of the date range, 1925, and the other during the last year, 1931. Player/team changes factored into it as well as font type, position designations, etc. At the time I was collecting the rookies, I owned both the Exhibit and W590 Gehrig, with the first being worth around $3K and the strip card being closer to $1K so there was no self-serving purpose for me to unjustly favor one over the other for my own benefit.

If I recall correctly, in more recent years, someone maybe a Dan posted a thread documenting multiple card issues where the date(s) had been in question over the years. I don’t recall if W590 was part of that one but it would be very helpful if somebody could find and post it. I had no luck searching for it.

Taking a closer look at the 5 boxing cards, and I defer to Adam’s expertise in this area, it appears that all were at “peak” times in their careers around 1925 as opposed to 1931 so this would correspond with my theory that this strip was produced in 1925 and not the later printing. The Gowdy baseball card certainly favors this theory as well and doesn’t make sense that it would be issued as late as 1931 when he was playing in Boston for the previous two seasons.

[Exhibitman]

The boxers aren't any help; all were active before and after 1925 and are in numerous sets from the era.