Mystery Reds "Ghost" on T206 misprint
Written by Bob Lemke (SCD - Oct 15, 1999)
Several times over the years we have used this space to present examples of early baseball card
printing errors, usually from the popular T206 tobacco issue of 1909-11.
The hobby used to look upon these anomalies as little more than curiosities, but in the
last couple of years examples of various types of misprinted T206s have sold for amounts
into the mid four-figure range.
The card presents here is of diminutive third baseman Doc Casey, playing with Montreal in the
International League after his 10-year major league career was finished.
Because of its odd size and shape, it appears as if the card was hand-cut from a sheet, probably
something that was salvaged from the printer's scrap nearly a century ago. The misprint has a
"ghost" image of the black printing to the right of the main image, but that's not the really
unusual feature.
Printed upside down in red is the image of another player. Secondary images of one player on
another's card are not unknown among T206 error cards...we presented one such in this space
in the Feb. 12 issue of SCD.
What makes this card particularly intriguing is that the secondary image is not of any player
from T206.
Emblazoned on the chest of the upside-down player picture is a bold, gothic, curved
"CINCINNATI". According to the "bible" of such things, Marc Okkonen's Baseball Uniforms
of the 20th Century, this particular logo type was only used on the Reds road jerseys for
a single season - 1908.
I'm betting that a devout Reds collector will immediately recognize the player's image and
will enlighten us all, hopefully even being about to cite a baseball card usage, linking both
T206 and the other issue to the same printer.
$500 REWARD
The owner of this card is seeking for help! He is willing to pay $500 to anyone who is able
to identify the mystery Cincinnati Reds Player. The person who is qualify to claim this
$500 REWARD
has to provide evidence(s) to proof the identity of that player
(eg. a scanned picture of the original secondary red image, a Reds team photo with that player ...etc)
Please email US here.
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