T206

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The tobacco card set known as T206 was issued from 1909 to 1911 in cigarette packs through 16 different brands owned by the American Tobacco Company. It is a landmark set in the history of baseball card collecting, due to its size, rarity, and the quality of its color lithographs. The name T206 refers to the catalog designation assigned by Jefferson Burdick in his book The American Card Catalog. It is also known informally as the "White Border" set due to the distinctive white borders surrounding the lithographs on each card.

The T206 set consists of 523 cards. Over 100 of these are for minor league players. There are also multiple cards for the same player in different poses, different uniforms, or even with different teams after being traded (since the set was issued over a period of several years). The cards measure 1-7/16" x 2-5/8" which is considered by many collectors to be the standard tobacco card size.

A high-quality example of the famous T206 Honus Wagner card was sold at auction on eBay in 2000 for 1.265 million dollars[eBay press release regarding sale of Wagner card] July 17, 2000. The T206 Wagner is without a doubt, the most famous of all baseball trading cards. Grade for Grade, it is also the most expensive. This is in part because of Wagner's place among baseballs immortals. More importantly, it is one of the scarcest cards from the most prominent of all vintage card sets.

Two popular theories exist as to why the card is so rare. The first theory was that the printing plate with Wagner's card broke early on in the production process. The other theory was that Wagner objected to the production of the card because it would be used to encourage children to smoke and/or because he was not compensated for his image being used.

T-206 cards were issued with 16 different backs, representing the 16 different brands of cigarettes/tobacco with which the cards were issued. Due to the same card having different backs, there are actually far more than 523 "different" T206 cards. The 16 backs are:

American Beauty
Broadleaf
Carolina Brights
Cycle
Drum
El Principe De Gales
Hindu - Found in both brown ink and red ink (rare)
Lenox
Old Mill
Piedmont
Polar Bear - Only brand that is not cigarettes; Polar Bear was loose tobacco
Sovereign
Sweet Caporal
Tolstoi
Ty Cobb
Uzit

The T206 set is the most popular and widely collected set of the tobacco/pre-war era. The historical significance of the set as well as the large number of variations give it enormous appeal to collectors. In addition, the set features many Baseball Hall of Fame members including Ty Cobb (who is pictured on 4 different cards), Walter Johnson, Cy Young, and Christy Mathewson. The value of the cards has led to a great deal of counterfeiting over the years.

External links

["Virtual collection" of T206 cards]

References

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