Reprint funny business

I mentioned at the end of this post that I recently grabbed another reprint set of an early 20th century Dodgers team, based on a similar reprint purchase by Wrigley Wax.

Unlike the previous Sporting News reprint set, this is a set I've known well and I'm somewhat familiar with the reprints, too. When WW mentioned reprints of the 1922 E120 American Caramel set, I exclaimed to myself, "Of course! I love that set!"

Why knock myself out about the can-be-costly originals when I can get reprints of those beauties?

That 1922 American Caramel set is my favorite 1920s set. That's not saying much since it's well-known as the most popular candy card set from that decade. Heck, there doesn't seem like that many 1920s card sets anyway, at least that are known to me. This one stands out among rather weak competition.

The actual 1922 American Caramels aren't as dynamic as the reprints, but first a little background.

The E120 American Caramel set is 240 unnumbered cards that measure 2 x 3 1/2 inches. They were sold with a stick of caramel candy. They're printed on thin card stock. The American League cards are cream-colored with brown print and the National League cards are bluish-green with bluish-green type. The backs of each card contain a team checklist.

OK, now here is my reprint set:

Aren't they pretty?

Gosh that's pretty.

Interestingly, I prefer the reprint cards to the originals because they really cranked up the green shading for the reprints. Here is what I believe to be an original E120 American Caramel in my collection:

You can see it features a bluish-green tint but it's not nearly as dramatic as the reprints.

OK, now for the funny business.

I never knew when the E120 American Caramel reprints were made until I received this reprint set. I had gotten a couple of the reprints a couple of years ago from a fellow blogger, I think it might have been Nick of Dime Boxes who dug them out of a dime box, not-so-coincidentally.

These are those.

As you can see, they are in much more shoddy shape than the reprints of each card that I showed above.

Since I didn't know when the reprints were made, judging by the condition of the cards, I assumed these were created probably in the 1970s, possibly earlier. Nothing more recent -- especially a reprint -- would be in that terrible shape, like somebody had SINGED the damn thing.

But it turns out the E120 American Caramel reprints are more recent than I had assumed.

They were reprinted in 1991.

OK, now, why wasn't I able to determine that from the two dodgy reprints that I had received earlier? Let's turn over those card backs:

Hmmmmm.

The area where the reprint information is listed has been conveniently eradicated in each instance.

Could it be that at some point someone attempted to pass these off as original E120 cards by artificially battering them and then erasing the dates?

I think that's the case.

Let's hope that my remembrance that they came out of a dime box is correct and that someone wasn't bamboozled before they ended up in the dime box.

Now, back to what I'm fairly sure is an actual E120 card.

I received this from reader Dave, who has sent me all kinds of great cards over the years. It looks just like an original E120, but as I mentioned on an earlier post, I had no real way to tell.

The back of that card had also experience type loss in key strategic areas. However in this instance, not only does this look more like an original but the paper loss is consistent with something being glued to a book at one point.

I've looked online and there's a similar Dutch Reuther original for sale:

It looks just like the one that I have although more intact.

So I'm relatively confident. But I've added another E120 Dodger to my cart just to be sure.

Because, goodness, these cards are so beautiful I just have to be as sure about them as possible.