1922 W501 Strip Card Set and Checklist

Posted on October 5, 2016 by Pre-War Cards

‘It’s In The Details’

Title	W501 Strip
Year	1922
Size	2″ x 3 1/2″
Images	Black and White
Type	Strip
Number in Set	120

W501 Strip Overview

W501 009 Vitt.jpg

The 1922 W501 strip card set includes black and white images on the front and blank backs. Cards are similar to the blank-backed W575-1 set, which is a spinoff of sorts of the E121 American Caramel set.

The cards have a unique G-4-22 printing on the fronts in the border area. To date, the reason behind it is unknown. The cards also include a card number. Numerous names in the set are misspelled. Some, such as the case of Ed Rommel (spelled Rounnel), are absolutely butchered.

The strip cards were printed in vertical rows as is evident from the way you see the cards today – many were not cut and instead were ripped and have uneven edges. The sides, by contrast, are generally even.

There aren’t many of these around with only a few hundred being graded. SGC has graded every card, but has graded only one or a handful of most cards. You don’t usually see large lots of these available but Robert Edward Auctions had a near set up for auction back in 2012.

Unnumbered W501s

While the W501 cards often have the G-422 printing on them, many do not, as discovered by a collector in recent years. As outlined here in a Net54 post, there are some that appear to be W575-1s but are really W501s, just without the G-422 marking.

These can be differentiated by the paper type as the W501 paper is slightly different than that of the W575-1 cards. The printing is also a little different with the W501 cards typically being a lesser quality and more of a grainy look, appearing almost as if they are a copy of a copy.