Among 150-350 subjects, Criger and Dooin share an interesting distinction. They are the only two poses that were printed with El Principe de Gales back but not with Hindu or Old Mill. Jiggs Donohue, the subject of a recent article, is similar. He was not printed with Hindu or Old Mill, but was also left off the EPDG print run as well.
I find it fun to try and collect the toughest back for each pose. In the 150-350 series, that generally means you end up looking for a lot of Hindu and Old Mill backs. Criger and Dooin are refreshing in that their toughest backs are either EPDG or Sovereign 150. It’s kind of a toss-up as to which back is more desirable. EPDG backs typically sell for more than Sovereign 150 backs, but it’s close.
I think the Sovereign 150 back is the scarcer of the two backs for Dooin and Criger. Normally, it would pretty easy to figure it out using the PSA and SGC Pop Reports, but it can be tough to get a good gauge on Sovereign 150 backs. PSA combined all Sovereign backs under one generic heading for the first few years that they cataloged backs. For both Criger and Dooin, their Sovereign 350 back is much more plentiful than Sovereign 150, so the generic Sovereign listing doesn’t help us much. The SGC numbers are easier to read, but they don’t help us reach any conclusions:
Criger EPDG – 6 in SGC Pop Report
Criger Sov150 – 4 in SGC Pop Report
Dooin EPDG – 4 in SGC Pop Report
Dooin Sov150 – 6 in SGC Pop Report
So, my gut says the Sov150 is tougher to find for each of them, but I don’t have any way to prove it. Either way, as you can see from the SGC Pop Report, the two backs are pretty close in terms of scarcity. It’s nice to have a couple poses to search for where the toughest card won’t break the bank like a Hindu might. Also, it likely won’t take years to find one like it can when searching for a specific Old Mill.
