Back on September 20, 2018, the above card sold as part of Heritage Auctions’ massive “Highest Graded” T206 set. Clearly Heritage did not realize this is the only graded copy of Devlin with an Old Mill back. Such an oversight is easy to understand given how the auction contained hundreds of cards that ultimately sold for more than this one. Another odd wrinkle is that this card does not appear in the PSA Population Report. At first I thought it might be because it has just been graded (back when I first looked at the auction around the 1st of September). However, it still has not been added to the Pop Report two months later. Now I’m guessing the reason it didn’t get added is due to the fact that the label was printed in a strange way. The label should read: “T206 Old Mill / Art Devlin.” Instead, it says: “1909-1911 Old Mill / Art Devlin. It seems likely that it wasn’t catalogued correctly as a result.
I don’t always write an article specifically dedicated to new T206 front/back confirmations, but I definitely wanted to single this one out. Typically a new confirmation will have a rare back. When a new Broad Leaf 350 is found, it’s cool, but hardly surprising. Many Broad Leaf 350 poses have only one or two graded copies, so finding a new one is to be expected once in a while. Finding a new Old Mill is a different thing altogether. For most poses, Old Mill backs are relatively plentiful. 150-350 Series Old Mills are much tougher to find, but very few poses are so rare as to lead you to believe that other unconfirmed poses are out there somewhere. In hindsight it’s not shocking, as there are a handful of extremely Low Pop Old Mills. Nonetheless, this is the first new Old Mill confirmation I can recall seeing in the last five or six years I have been paying attention to such things.
Prior to seeing this Devlin, I figured some 150-350 Series poses were left off the Old Mill print run in the same way that some were left off the El Principe de Gales and Sovereign 350 print runs. Now that we know Devlin was printed, I wonder if the other unconfirmed 150-350 Series poses will eventually show up with an Old Mill back. These are the four 150-350 Series poses who have not been found with an Old Mill back, though in theory they could be in the future:
- Criger
- Donohue
- Dooin
- Seymour (Batting)
*Seymour (Batting) appears in the SGC Pop Report with a Pop of 1. It could exist, or it could just be a data entry error.
Link to the auction listing:
https://sports.ha.com/itm/baseball-cards/singles-pre-1930-/1909-11-t206-old-mill-art-devlin-psa-nm-7-pop-eight-two-higher-/a/50008-50126.s