Judging the Authenticity of Early Baseball Cards

by David Rudd Cycleback

Chapter 12 : To know what is old, you must know what is new

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In this chapter you will learn what the printing on early baseball cards does not look like. While lithography itself has been around for over two hundred years, the version used to make modern trading cards, including reprints and counterfeits, is easy to identify. If you examine the color player picture on the front of a modern trading card, like Barry Bonds above, you will the image are is made up of a fine pattern of tiny color dots (the card's text, border lines and other designs will often be solid ink). This is color half-tone printing, and it is used to make the images for many modern products, including magazines, postcards and cereal boxes. The combination of color dots create the image and its color. The individual dots on modern cards are usually yellow, cyan (light blue), magenta (dark pink), yellow and black. They will overlap each other in areas to create the various colors. For example, a yellow dot overlapping a magenta dot will create orange on the microscopic level. As you look in different parts of the image the dot colors and density will change. For a blue sky there will be mostly or totally blue dots. In a light area, there will be few and sometimes no dots. In a dark area there will be lots of dots, many overlapping. But you will find that the entire image is made up of a mechanical pattern of tiny multi color dots. If you look at a half tone lithographed dot, it will appear like a little splotch of paint or colored glue. The edges will be soft and often splotchy. Home computer printers and color photocopiers create a similar multi color dot pattern, though under high magnification the little dots of ink may not look like splotches of paint. Splotchy, soft edged magenta lithograph dots   Guess What? You've Just Learn How to Identify Many Reprints Few if any Pre-1930 baseball cards have images with this type of multi color halftone dots printing pattern. While, as you will see later, black and white halftone was used on some early cards, the multi-color dot pattern was not. In other words, if you see a T206 Ty Cobb where Cobb's picture has this type of halftone multi dot printing throughout his image, it's a reprint. If you see an Old Judge Hoss Radbourne with this type of printing, its a reprint. If you see an Allen & Ginter Cap Anson with this type of printing, it's a reprint. If you see a Just So Tobacco with the multi-color dot pattern, it's a reprint. If you see a Four Base Hits with this type of printing, it's a reprint. And so on. Between this chapter and chapter 10 (black light), you can identify more reprints than you can shake a stick at. cycleback.com................cards main (c) david rudd cycleback, cyclback.com all rights reserved

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