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This Jerome Downs card in my Piedmont set has a gloss on its entire front. Obviously, this gloss is not visible on a scan.
But, trust me....it's there. So, how did it get there and how many more such T206's with a glossy sheen are there ?
This is a part of the fabled T206 Topps Tiffany set. This set saw limited release at Hills Department Stores and select Piggly Wigglys in the mid-1980's. It was only issued in full-set form, and came contained within an aluminum box, itself a beautiful curio.
This made me first think of those Ty Cobb cards... the ones where folks that own 'em want 'em to be T206s, but it seems obvious to me that they aren't.
I'm with the shellac or varnish theory above. I've not had a T206 like that, but did buy some 1940 Playballs that had been coated. They'd been in a scrapbook, I think pasted in with some paste that readily dissolved. The backs of the cards were bright and clean (someone must have soaked them off), the corners sharp, but the fronts had that gloss, that wasn't perfectly clear, they looked ever so slightly darker than a normal Playball.
Look at the T206 under really bright light, with a magnifying glass, tilting the card so you look across its surface. Can you see any slight waves or brush strokes?
I have a T207 like this. I had traded it and took it back and it does seem to have a high gloss for a soon to be 100 year old card. The person who returned it said it had passed any kind of test he gave it but couldn't tell what the gloss was made of. I'm not so sure it's shellac since it seems pretty clear still but something is making it shinier than it should be. Anyone else have ideas on what else you could regloss an old card with?
Back in the late 80's I recall that a company was marketing a product called "Magic re-gloss spray". I remember seeing cards with the gloss caked on, sort of like a Tammy Faye Baker version of T-206. I recall one guy trying to sell me a Kaline rookie with a thumbprint on it. The idiot didn't even wait for the 'magic' to dry.....
