A Look at the 24 Known Errors in the T205 Set

Posted on March 12, 2018 by Pre-War Cards

The 1911 T205 set is one of the most popular pre-war issues around. And the fact that it’s less than half the size of the monstrous T206 issue makes it more attainable for collectors.

T205 has 208 base cards in its standard set. That’s the number required to be considered complete. But while that number includes several pose variations, it doesn’t include the many errors found in the release.

Currently, there are 24 errors that are generally known to the hobby for a total of 232 cards. More are likely to exist as several have been found in recent years. I recently found one for John Titus just last year and documented it on this site. As I continue to dig more into this set, I expect to find others.

Here’s an in-depth look at the additional known errors in the set.

1. Hal Chase – Frame Extends

This is one of the easier errors in the set to find. And as is the case with some of these, it’s actually more common than the corrected version. That means, of course, that it was likely discovered late in the printing process and that not as many of the corrected versions were produced.

On the card, the first and third base lines extend down past the shoulders of Yankees star Hal Chase. The corrected version of this card has the baseline/inner part of the frame stop at this shoulders.

2. Eddie Collins Yellow Elephant

One of the more unique errors in the set is the Eddie Collins card featuring a yellow elephant logo.

Team logos were printed in the upper left part of the cards and on Collins’ closed mouth mouth version, the elephant logo for the Philadelphia Athletics is yellow instead of white. The yellow is similar to the yellow found in the color of the baseball bats and the nameplate on the card.

3. Otis Crandall Uncrossed ‘T’

The National League cards in the T205 set are significantly different from the American League cards. While the American League cards feature a playing field background, National League cards have blank backgrounds and the names of the players in a hand-written manner.

Otis Crandall’s card have some versions of the ‘T’ uncrossed in his signature on the front of the card. Like the Chase card, it was corrected later.

4. Patsy Dougherty Red Sock

Similar to Eddie Collins’ card, we’ve got another logo snafu here. Patsy Dougherty played for the Chicago White Sox but you wouldn’t know it if you looked at the card. While one version does have the sock logo in white, an error card has the sock colored in red.

That wasn’t a mistake by the manufacturer thinking Dougherty played for the Red Sox. The Boston Red Sox cards actually featured a ‘B’ instead of a sock. The background on the Dougherty card was red and the ink simply covered extended into the sock error. The red sock error card is harder to find than the corrected white sock version.

5. George Graham Blue Signature

Like the Crandall error card, here’s another one that had to do with the signature on the front of the card.

George Graham’s signature is correct but some versions have it in a blue ink while others are black. Black was the color used for the signatures so it’s the blue one that’s the error. In terms of rarity, though, blue is a little more common than the black version.

6. Dolly Gray No Stats

One of the more desirable error/correction cards involves Dolly Gray. T205 cards were unique as they were one of the first sets to include statistics. But while stats did appear on the cards, most versions of Gray’s cards don’t have any.

The error was fixed but few of the corrected cards are out there and even low grade versions of them are hundreds of dollars.

7., 8., and 9. Dick Hoblitzell Cards

While several players had one error, Dick Hoblitzell is the only player that can boast four.

The most common version of the Hoblitzell card has ‘1908 Cin’ in his stats on the back. But three different ones are known as well. One has only 1908 without the ‘Cin’. A third Hoblitzell card has his name misspelled, missing a second ‘L’ on the back.

Finally, the rarest version does not have statistics on the back. That is arguably the most expensive card in the set with even mid-grade copies selling into the five figures.

10. and 11. Danny Hoffman Colored Base (with and without stripe)

Danny Hoffman has at least two variations in the set involving a colored base and a stripe.

As Hoffman was an American Leaguer, his card has the playing field/baseball diamond background. Some of his cards have a standard white second base (which it should have to match the others. However, some have a yellow base, as outlined in this Net54 post.

Additionally, some of those yellow cards have a stripe in the background behind his head while others do not.

A fourth variation is mentioned in that Net54 post with a face lacking detail. But I did not list that here as there are other T205 cards with that sort of flaw, even if not as extreme. I consider to be more of a freak that you find in some of the T206 cards with wild printing flaws.

12. and 13. Arlie Latham Initials

Arlie Latham’s card doesn’t feature a huge error but a few different ones have been noted in recent years. In Latham’s name just above the biography in the back, there are some slight variances.

The easiest version to find is the one that reads ‘A. Latham’ but there are at least two others. A second one that is a little more difficult to find is one that reads W.A. Latham. The W. actually fits here since Latham’s full name was Walter Arlington Latham. The Arlie name was obviously a shortened version of his middle name.

A third was discovered in recent years. This one has a period before the A. Latham as well as a faint ‘M’ before that period to make it look like M.A. Latham. That version appears to be the toughest of the three.

14. Lefty Leifield Signature

Like the Arlie Latham card, Lefty Leifield has an error that isn’t really an error. Truth be told, this one is more like a variation instead of an error.

Some of Lefty Leifield’s cards have ‘A. Leifield’ as the signature on the front. Others, however, have ‘A.P. Leifield’ as the signature. Either works as Lefty’s real name is Albert Peter Leifield.

The A.P. version seems slightly tougher but isn’t all that rare compared to other errors on this list.

15. Christy Mathewson One Loss

Easily the biggest ‘star’ error card, the Christy Mathewson one loss card is a desirable one.

Most versions of Mathewson’s cards correctly indicate that the Hall of Famer had 11 losses in 1908. However, one rare version says otherwise. Mathewson’s cards with the Cycle brand back show him with only one loss as one of the ‘1’s in the number ’11’ is missing.

The error is only found on his Cycle-backed cards and because Cycle is a rare back, that makes it a hard one to track down.

16. and 17. Dots Miller Initials

Pittsburgh Pirates infielder Dots Miller has three different versions in the T205 set. The correct version has his middle initial on the back as B. Miller’s middle name was Barney so that was the correct card. Two others are known, though.

One card incorrectly has his middle initial as D. The writer of the biographies could have believed that his nickname, Dots, was his middle name. A third version exists that shows a D. with a partial B. behind it. I’m not sure which, if any, are rarer but neither of the three versions really bring much of a premium.

18. Pat Moran Stray Line

The Moran stray line card is one of the bigger ones in the set. Like the Gray card, even in poor condition, it sells for hundreds of dollars.

Most versions of Moran’s card are normal without mistakes. But a few versions have a stray line of text below his statistics. The line reads, ‘ning corps of pitchers’ which is the final line in the biography of Al Mattern. How the text ended up on Moran’s card is anybody’s guess but it’s clearly a printing error.

19. Fred Snodgrass Missing Decimal Point

Another error related to statistics on the back is found on Fred Snodgrass cards and was discovered on Net54. In particular, it appears to be found on only his Sovereign-backed issues.

Snodgrass’ .405 batting average through August 11 of 1910 (for those of you amazed, it fell to a less impressive but still good .321 by the end of the year) is mentioned on his biography on the back. However, while other branded cards correctly print it as .405, Sovereign’s card is missing the decimal point.

20. John Titus Print Mark

As I documented earlier on the site, John Titus has a minor error card that was likely caused by a mark on a printing plate.

The error is found only on certain versions of Titus’ Piedmont Factory 25 cards. A circular blue dot is found near the top of his biography. As it is only found one one sponsor’s (Piedmont) cards and at one factory, the card is significantly rarer than Titus’ other cards.

It can be argued just how much of an error this really is. It is found on multiple Titus cards and is clearly not a one-off type of mistake. But it is more of a defect in the printing process than anything else.

21. Bobby Wallace 1910 Stats

Bobby Wallace is another high-profile player found in the error cards.

Wallace has two pose variations in the T205 set – one card has him with a cap and the other, without the cap. The error card is found on Wallace’s cap-less version, which is already a shortprint. The easier version is the corrected card showing only one line of 1910 stats. The much tougher card is one that shows him with two lines of 1910 status

22. Ed Walsh Pink

Ed Walsh is the final Hall of Fame player with an error. Almost all of his cards are a regular version without a mistake. However, a few have a pink tint to them with the white sock logo and basepaths having an obvious pink filling.

The pink Walsh hasn’t taken legendary status yet and there are questions about how legit this card is as it could simply be a freak error as opposed to a widespread version with numerous copies.

23. Doc White Quotes

A Doc White error is known with a slight variance in his biography on the back.

Doc’s name on the back usually has quotation marks around it. However, on some Polar Bear versions, the cards are missing the quotation marks surrounding the word Doc. Some of the cards have very faint quotation marks but others are found with no trace of the marks ever being present.

Just as the Mathewson one-loss card is exclusive to the Cycle-backed cards, this variance is found only on White’s Polar Bear cards.

24. Irv Wilhelm ‘Suffeed’

The final error mentioned here is one of the more famous ones in the set. Almost all of Irv Wilhelm’s T205 cards have a typo but a few corrected cards exist.

The word ‘suffered’ is misspelled on the majority of Wilhelm’s cards. The exact phrase in the bio is discussing Wilhelm’s bout with typhoid. The corrected version reads: “In 1910, he suffered from a severe attack of the typhoid, which kept him off the diamond the last half of the season.” But most of the cards state that ‘he suffe ed from a severe attack of the typhoid.”

The typo does not have all of the letters running together. Instead, there is a blatant blank in the place where the ‘R’ should be.

Wilhelm’s cards are shortprinted so even the more common ‘suffeed’ version is not cheap. Even low-grade copies of the card sell for more than $100.