This little gem was sold last weekend via PWCC Auctions. The auction boasted an impressive array of T206s, and this one was kind of buried among the offerings. It was listed as “Ghost Image” due to the dark rectangle that appears over the front of the bottom 90% of the card. When I first saw it, I was pretty sure I knew what the faint lighter image on the on the ghost overprint was, but I needed to verify. I am not particularly good with Photo Shop, but I thought it might be fun to show the process I used to figure out who the ghost was anyway
I thought it looked like the ghost overprint was upside down, so first I turned the image upside down:
In this particular case, I had a hunch of who the ghost might be right when I first saw the card. However, there have been plenty of times when I haven’t been so sure when looking at a T206 with a ghost image. In those cases, the first step in the sleuthing process is to identify any distinguishing marks (or in this case, the spots on the ghost overprint which are lighter than the rest of the ghost).
Once you’ve found some spots to look for, you need to go through other cards that were printed in the same series. In this case, Gibson is a 150-350 subject and this card has a Piedmont 150 back. So, if the ghost overprint features another T206 pose, it will be one of the other 155 poses from the Piedmont 150 checklist. When I am searching for a possible match, I like to use the checklists at T206resource.com and click on the scan links at the right side of the page. You can scroll through the entire 150-350 Series checklist on this page.
Like I mentioned earlier, I had a hunch right away. I pulled up this pose, and found an immediate match:
I wish I had the Photo Shop skills of Chris Browne or Erick Summers, but unfortunately this is the best I can do. If you look closely, you can see that the previously identified lighter spots on Gibson line up perfectly with Eddie Cicotte’s right arm and the creases in his pants. How this card might have come to exist is a mystery to me. I suppose the lighter ghost print could have come first, with the printer’s realizing that the sheet was placed upside down and then turning it around and printing the entire card again. This fun error card sold for $249.83. I imagine most bidders were not sure what they were looking at, but the winner most likely knew that the ghost was Cicotte.