1910 T210 Old Mill Red Borders Set

Posted on October 5, 2016 by Pre-War Cards

‘It’s In The Details’

Title	T210 Red Border
Year	1910
Size	1 1/2″ x 2 5/8″
Images	Black and White
Type	Tobacco
Number in Set	640

T210 Old Mill Overview

The 1910 T210 Old Mill set is commonly referred to as the ‘Red Borders’ set for its colorful red edges on the fronts of the cards. While the cards all have the same general look, there are a total of eight series’ in the entire release. Series are denoted on the backs. Each series includes cards of players from a particular minor league.

Fronts include a black and white photograph of a player with his name and team at the bottom. The backs include an advertisement for Old Mill Cigarettes.

New cards have been discovered since the American Card Catalog’s T210-card designation. At the time of printing of that book, 563 cards were known. However, almost 100 additional cards have since been found since that printing. As of now, 640 cards are believed to exist in the entire set.

Because the cards feature minor leaguers, most names are not recognizable to the average collector. But Series 8 includes a rookie card of Shoeless Joe Jackson, which is easily the highlight of the set with cards topping $100,000 in value. While it is an early card of Jackson, it is technically not his rookie. Still, it is one of the more valuable of all pre-war cards.

While it is not nearly as important, a minor league card of Hall of Famer Casey Stengel is also in the set. Stengel’s card, even in lower-grade shape, can command five figures.

A Rare Mascot Card

While the cards of Jackson and Stengel are the two keys to the set, a card of a little-known child is actually right behind them in terms of desirability.

One card features a young boy in uniform and holding a baseball bat as the mascot for the Goldsboro Giants, one of the teams represented in the set.

While it might seem odd that such a card would be pursued, its uniqueness (the boy with a last name of Kelly is the only known mascot in the set. That makes his a special card of a sort and even in low-grade condition, it starts around $900-$1,000.

Another thing that makes the card special is that it is in one of the rarer subsets, Series 7. T210 cards are already quite rare but Series 7 cards are among the more difficult cards to find.

Here’s more on this unique card.

Orange and Yellow Borders

While the cards have mostly red borders, some are known with orange borders. Even less have been seen with yellow borders. While known, these cards without the red borders are rare.

Printing errors are the likely culprit for these variations. A consensus has never been reached on them, however. Some collectors believe they were intentionally printed that way while others believe they were printed as a mistake.

Claims of orange-bordered or yellow-bordered cards in other series exist, but they are mostly believed to be found in only Series 3.

Cards with the orange or yellow borders typically sell for more money than cards with the standard red borders. The amount paid, however, fluctuates quite a bit.

T210 Old Mill Checklist

Each series was associated with a particular league. Below are the leagues represented in each series.

Series 1: Atlantic League (75 cards)
Series 2: Virginia League (87 cards)
Series 3: Texas League (95 cards)
Series 4: Virginia Valley League (49 cards)
Series 5: Carolina Association (87 cards)
Series 6: Blue Grass League (66 cards)
Series 7: East Carolina League (67 cards)
Series 8: Southern Association (114 cards)

A total of 640 cards are found across the eight series.