1909-10 German Baseball Stamps Set and Checklist

Posted on October 11, 2016 by Pre-War Cards

‘It’s In The Details’

Title	German Baseball Stamps
Year	1909-10
Size	1 3/8″ x 1 3/4″
Images	Color
Type	Stamps
Number in Set	44

1909-10 German Baseball Stamps Overview

10GS Mathewson.jpg

The 1909-10 German Baseball Stamps set includes dozens of small stamps of both baseball players and equipment. 44 are believed to exist. Plenty of big names are present, including the likes of Christy Mathewson, Honus Wagner, and Cy Young.

Additionally, while the 1909-10 German Stamps set includes stamps of specific players, other issues have surfaced of stamps with similar drawings but no names. They have not yet been conclusively linked to the set.

These can be found both unused or affixed to other items, such as paper.

A total of 44 stamps are known to be in the set. The issue includes 38 stamps of baseball players and six more featuring only equipment. According to PSA, the stamps were originally issued in sheets of 35. Another sheet up for auction, however, consisted of only 25 stamps. The 25 number seems to jive with a similar set of boxing stamps as those were issued in sheets of 25.

There is some question as to the dating of the stamps due to the presence of a player named ‘Shannon’ that played for Boston. The only players from near the time of the estimated release of this product are brothers Joe and Red Shannon, who both played for the Boston Braves in 1915.

That seems to indicate the set dating is incorrect. However, another possibility is that the Boston is simply an error and the actual player is Spike Shannon, who appeared in other pre-war issues, as this thread suggests. In addition, PSA’s pop reports lists Shannon as a New York player so they have record of him being on a corrected stamp as well.

Spike’s career ended after the 1908 season so it might seem questionable on the surface that he would have been included in a set supposedly issued in 1909 or 1910 on the surface. But Shannon was also included in the later T206 issued from 1909-11. For now, this seems to be the most plausible explanation for me and I have included Spike’s name as the Shannon below.

1909-10 German Baseball Stamps Checklist

Note that Warren Miller is sometimes mistaken on checklists as being Dots Miller. But given his team name of Washington on some of the stamps (who he was playing with in this time period), it is evidence that this is likely Warren.

Finally, note that I have included Ty Cobb in this checklist as he appears in PSA’s pop report. However, he does not appear in other checklists I have seen so I cannot confirm his existence in this set.