"Fake Design" But Not Fake Cards

Here's a card from the past that doesn't get seen as often as it once did:

It's an E91a card of Roger Bresnahan. Here's the back:

As you can see, it was issued by the American Caramel Company, the same company that issued the various E90 sets, as well as the E120, E121 and E122 sets of the 1920s. The E91s were released in three different series, which are generally believed to have been issued in 1908 (E91a), 1909 (E91b) and 1910 (E91c). Each set has 33 players, and each series has a different checklist on the back.

However, these are among the least desirable of the "E" series cards due to the fact that they aren't always picturing the player featured. Due to a generic-type design, sometimes the same picture would be used in each set for a different player.

As a result, you would get the following cards (images grabbed elsewhere on the Web):

E91a "Iron Joe" McGinnity

E91b "Rube"Marquard

E91c Joe Wood

That might have put a crimp in the old habit of searching through cards saying "got 'em, got 'em, need 'em..."