T205 Gold Border Set A Masterpiece
‘It’s In The Details’
| Title | T205 Gold Border |
| Year | 1911 |
| Size | 1 7/16″ x 2 5/8″ |
| Images | Color |
| Type | Tobacco |
| Number in Set |
208 (221 for recognized master set) (232 with known errors but likely more) |
T205 Gold Border Overview
While the T206 set is a fantastic issue in its own right and the most popular pre-war card set, the T205 gold border set is also a true masterpiece. And as I wrote here, its investment potential may be even higher than the T206 release.
208 cards plus errors make up this incredible issue. 221 cards are generally considered good enough for a master set even as other new variances have been discovered. Note that ‘master’ set in the terms of this page indicates the number of different cards, not including all of the back variations. If you consider all of the back variations for each card, there are, of course, many more cards
While there are not a Big 4 in this set like there are in the T206 issue, here are what I believe to be a Big 4 for the T205s.
Interestingly enough, backs of the cards indicate there is a total of 400 designs in the series. Some collectors believe this indicates that other non-sports cards with gold borders were intended to be in the same set. Others believe that, as was the case in many other sets, the expected production of additional cards simply did not take place.
While you might think the T205 set precedes the T206 set because of the numbering, that isn’t the case. The T205s were actually printed just after the T206s. While still a fairly large set with 200+ cards, it wasn’t nearly as large as the massive 524-card T206 issue. And even though some big name players like Hall of Famers Roger Bresnahan and Eddie Collins have more than one card, this is nothing like the T206 set where you have dozens of guys with two, three, four, or even (in the case of Hal Chase, who has three T205 cards) five cards. That, along with no insanely expensive cards, makes it much more realistic to complete.
The set is not without big names, though. Leading the way in the impressive release is Ty Cobb, Addie Joss, Walter Johnson, and Christy Mathewson. The Joss card, in particular, was extremely important. He died prior to the set’s production and his card is a tribute card that is highly desirable. In addition to those big names, there are a number of short prints that are difficult finds. Those short prints make completing the set a reasonable challenge. Most can be found but are not always readily available.
The set is one of the most artistic releases of the pre-war era. The gold borders, which have often faded over time, have helped keep the number of high-grade examples down. National League cards and American League cards are distinctly different. The National League cards are portraits of players with replica signatures. American League cards are portraits, too, but are smaller and the faces are inside of a baseball diamond. In addition to those, a total of 12 minor league cards are also included. While many are common players, those usually sell for a premium over standard major league commons.
Backs of the cards include biographies and statistical information, which was a bit unique for trading cards to that point. It is one of the earliest sets to have both of those on the backs. It is often called the earliest but other sets may be able to stake that claim, too. For example, some of the T212 Obak cards printed from 1909-11 also have those components. Several of the biographies include some interesting facts.
Here are 25 basic facts about the set. And if you’re interested in seeing one of these cards under magnification, here’s a closer look at that.
The set is considered to be one of the top pre-war issues of all time. Still, there are a few things it’s missing that would have improved it.
Errors Vs. Variations
One thing of importance is that the set includes both variations and errors. That distinction is important to make because while often lumped together, they do not mean the same thing. These are often all referred to as variations by collectors but that is not really accurate.
Variations are players (i.e. Barger) that have more than one card utilizing different poses. Errors are simply those cards with various mistakes in them. One of the more popular ones, for example, is for player Pat Moran as the back of some of his cards include a stray line of random text. Variations are required for the basic 208-card set. The additional error cards (listed at the bottom here) are needed for the 221-card master set.
Among the variations are also some cards featuring players with team changes. Two of those are Peaches Graham and David Shean. Both players were traded from the Rustlers to the Cubs in 1911 and while the majority of their cards depict them with the Rustlers, both also have cards showing them as members of the Cubs.
The easiest way to keep these separate is to note those cards which were intended to be actual, different cards, and others that simply included mistakes. The actual new cards were variations while the mistakes are errors.
More Unreported T205 Errors and Variations
It should be noted that while 221 cards comprise a recognized master set, there are in fact several more errors. More print errors/variations continue to pop up to this day and more will almost certainly be added.
One was mentioned in 2012 that has Eddie Collins with a yellow elephant instead of a white one. Shortly before that, three variations of a Dots Miller card were found (with a middle initial of B., middle initial of D., and a middle initial of what looks to be a combination of a D. and a B. Others include a Doc White without quotation marks as well as blue and black variations of George Graham’s signature.
Finally some cards have been known to contain pink hue variations, including one of Hall of Famer Ed Walsh. I have only added the Walsh here because that has been confirmed by various collectors. However, others likely exist.
Finally, it should be noted that some of the errors can only be found with certain backs. The Mathewson ‘1 Loss’ error, for example, is only on Cycle backs. The aforementioned White ‘no quotes’ error is only on Polar Bear backs.
Some of the errors do not carry much of a premium. But others, such as this one for Pat Moran that includes a stray line of printing in his biography can be worth a lot of money. Another valuable error card is one for Dolly Gray. More precisely, the valuable Gray card is the one that shows statistics, sometimes considered to be a corrected card.
Here’s a look at all of the known errors at the time of this publishing.
Green Bordered Cards
Finally, one other type of print variation exists, which has caused some cards to have green borders instead of the customary gold ones.
Some collectors believe that the green bordered cards have come from the gold paint simply becoming worn or faded over time. However, it is my belief that the cards merely did not get the proper amount of certain ink colors instead.
I go into greater detail into that topic here but, essentially, other areas of green bordered cards look different in addition to the borders. For example, the Lefty Leifield cards here show some evidence of that. The green bordered card on the right is darker in general. It appears to have too much black ink or missing other colors to adequately produce the brown/gold borders.
That is evident not only in the border area but other places as well, such as the team name at the bottom and the team logo at the top.
T205 Gold Border Checklist
Here is the complete checklist (recognized variations/errors to complete a master set at the bottom):
- Ed Abbaticchio
- Doc Adkins
- Leon Ames
- James Archer
- Jimmy Austin
- Bill Bailey
- Home Run Baker
- Neal Ball
- E.B. Barger (Full ‘B’ on cap)
- E.B. Barger (Partial ‘B’ on cap)
- Jack Barry
- Emil Batch
- John Bates
- Fred Beck
- Beals Becker
- George Bell
- Chief Bender
- Bill Bergen
- Bob Bescher
- Joe Birmingham
- Lena Blackburne
- Bill Bransfield
- Roger Bresnahan (mouth closed)
- Roger Bresnahan (mouth open)
- Al Bridwell
- Mordecai Brown
- Bob Byrne
- Hick Cady
- Howie Camnitz
- Bill Carrigan
- Frank Chance
- Hal Chase (frame stops at shoulders)
- Hal Chase (only left ear)
- Eddie Cicotte
- Fred Clarke
- Ty Cobb
- Eddie Collins (mouth closed)
- Eddie Collins (mouth open)
- Jimmy Collins
- Frank Corridon
- Otis Crandall
- Lou Criger
- Bill Dahlen
- Jake Daubert
- Jim Delehanty
- Art Devlin
- Josh Devore
- W.R. Dickson
- Jiggs Donahue
- Red Dooin
- Mike Doolan
- Patsy Dougherty
- Tom Downey
- Larry Doyle
- Hugh Duffy
- Jack Dunn
- Jimmy Dygert
- Dick Egan
- Kid Elberfeld
- Clyde Engle
- Louis Evans
- Johnny Evers
- Bob Ewing
- G.C. Ferguson
- Ray Fisher
- Art Fletcher
- Johnny Flynn
- Russ Ford (black cap)
- Russ Ford (white cap)
- Bill Foxen
- Jimmy Frick
- Art Fromme
- Earl Gardner
- Harry Gaspar
- George Gibson
- Wilbur Goode
- George Graham (Cubs)
- George Graham (Rustlers)
- Ed Grant
- Dolly Gray (no stats)
- Clark Griffith
- Bob Groom
- Charlie Hanford
- Bob Harmon (both ears)
- Bob Harmon (one ear)
- Topsy Hartsel
- Arnold Hauser
- Charlie Hemphill
- C.L. Herzog
- Dick Hoblitzell (with 1908 Cin, correct name spelling)
- Danny Hoffman (white base)
- Miller Huggins
- John Hummel
- Fred Jacklitsch
- Hughie Jennings
- Walter Johnson
- Davy Jones
- Tom Jones
- Addie Joss
- Ed Karger
- Ed Killian
- Red Kleinow
- Johnny Kling
- Jack Knight
- Ed Konetchy
- Harry Krause
- Floyd Kroh
- Frank Lang
- Frank LaPorte
- A. Latham (A. on back)
- Tom Leach
- Atty Lee
- Sam Leever
- Lefty Leifield (with A. in signature)
- Ed Lennox
- Paddy Livingston
- John Lobert
- Bris Lord
- Harry Lord
- John Lush
- Nick Maddox
- Sherry Magee
- Rube Marquard
- Christy Mathewson
- A.A. Mattern
- Sport McAllister
- George McBride
- Amby McConnell
- P.L. McElveen
- John McGraw
- Harry McIntyre
- Matty McIntyre
- John McLean
- Fred Merkle
- George Merritt
- J.T. Meyers
- Clyde Milan
- John Miller (Middle initial ‘B.’)
- Mike Mitchell
- Pat Moran
- George Moriarty
- George Mullin
- Danny Murphy
- Jack Murray
- John Nee
- Tom Needham
- Rebel Oakes
- Rube Oldring
- Charley O’Leary
- Fred Olmstead
- Orval Overall
- Fred Parent
- George Paskert
- Billy Payne
- Barney Pelty
- John Pfiester
- Jimmy Phelan
- E.J. Phelps
- C. Phillippe
- Jack Quinn
- A. Raymond
- Ed Reulbach
- Lewis Richie
- John Rowan
- George Rucker
- W.D. Scanlon
- Germany Schaefer
- George Schlei
- Boss Schmidt
- F.M. Schulte
- Jim Scott
- B.H. Sharpe
- David Shean (Cubs)
- David Shean (Rustlers)
- James Sheckard
- Hack Simmons
- Tony Smith
- Fred Snodgrass
- Tris Speaker
- Jake Stahl
- Oscar Stanage
- Harry Steinfeldt
- George Stone
- George Stovall
- Gabby Street
- George Suggs
- Ed Summers
- Jeff Sweeney
- Lee Tannehill
- Ira Thomas
- Joe Tinker
- John Titus
- Terry Turner
- James Vaughn
- Heinie Wagner
- Bobby Wallace (cap)
- Bobby Wallace (no cap)
- Ed Walsh
- Zack Wheat
- Doc White
- Kirb White
- Irwin Wilhelm ‘suffeed’
- Ed Willett
- Owen Wilson
- George Wiltse (both ears)
- George Wiltse (one ear)
- Harry Wolter
- Cy Young
Errors for recognized 221-card master set
209. Hal Chase (baseline extends down)
210. Otis Crandall (‘T’ uncrossed)
211. Patsy Dougherty (red sock)
212. Dolly Gray (with stats)
213. Dick Hoblitzell (1908 No. Cin.)
214. Dick Hoblitzell (name misspelled)
215. Dick Hoblitzell (no stats)
216. A. Latham (W.A. on back)
217. A. Leifield (A.P. in signature)
218. Christy Mathewson (one loss Cycle back)
219. Pat Moran (stray line of text)
220. Bobby Wallace (one 1910 stat line)
221. Irwin Wilhelm (‘suffered’)
Additional Documented Errors
222. Eddie Collins (yellow elephant)
223. George Graham (black signature)
224. Danny Hoffman (yellow base, no stripe)
225. Danny Hoffman (yellow base with stripe)
226. A. Latham (.A. on back with a faint M before it)
227. Dots Miller (middle initial ‘D.’)
228. Dots Miller (middle initial combination of ‘B.’ and ‘D.’)
229. Fred Snodgrass (missing decimal point)
230. John Titus (stray print mark on Piedmont Factory 25 cards)
231. Ed Walsh (pink printing)
232. Doc White (no quotes)
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