T206 Ed Greminger (Old Mill-Brown with Factory 649 Overprint) PSA-Auth sold for $26,400

Heritage Auctions (July 19, 2019)

1909-11 T206 Old Mill-Brown Ed Greminger (Factory 649 Overprint) PSA Authentic - A Fascinating & Unique Print Anomaly! The pursuit of Hall of Fame players is probably one of the most popular ways of collecting T206 cards. Other passionate T206 specialists thrive on acquiring the scarce Southern League players or choose to focus on one or more brands be they common or extremely rare. Then there are those fueled by a drive that knows no common sense is the pandemonium over color variations, overprints and the fascinating world that should not exist - the printer's scrap. Mis-cuts, ghosted images, double strikes, errors, wet sheet transfers, and the list goes on. It is this world of T206 collecting that has become a great area of interest one-hundred years after the fact as they are all unique in some way.

Offered is an intriguing card featuring Southern Leaguer Ed Greminger of Montgomery. This fascinating entry not only boasts the rarest version (Brown Ink) of a scarcer tobacco brand - Old Mill Cigarettes - but we also have for apparent reason a red "FACTORY No. 649. 1ST DIST. N. Y." caption and solid bar overprint encountered only on a limited quantity of Sweet Caporal cards. The fact it is misplaced and upside down is just a bonus. The Old Mill (Brown) back is close to impossible to find and usually on a hand cut card suggesting it was a color option the client rejected or printer miscue as black was always the intended color choice. It certainly appears they never intended to see public circulation. When the need for the overprint arrived printed but unused sheets were used to set up the press for the adding the factory 649 overprint without ruining useful sheets of Sweet Caporal cards.

Encapsulated PSA Authentic. Currently this is the one and only example of this utterly unique back!