T204 Ramly Cigarettes cards of 1909 feature a beautiful black-and-white
portrait of each player encircled in an ornate border with
the player's name, position, and team affiliation printed at the bottom.
The cards, which are embossed and highlighted with gold ink, are extremely condition-sensitive because they are
printed on flimsy paper. The gold borders are also very
susceptible to chipping, as is the case with most gold-bordered cards.
Between the outstanding player selection and the overall beauty of the
issue, higher-grade examples from the set are extremely pricey, making
affordable specimens tough to find.
PSA has only ever graded 15 total examples of this 1909 Ramly T204 of New York right fielder Moose McCormick.
Centering is just a hair east on the canvas, but looks nice overall. There
is some minor edge wear and chipping that is so common
with the set's gold
borders, particularly noticeable in the rounded corners. The top left and top right corners each exhibit some creasing, and there is some snow in the portrait area. Luckily, none of it covers Moose's face, and the image remains bright and clear.
The
reverse
is extremely clean, with almost no visible soiling. Soiling
is not
unusual for these
cards,
where the
embossing can act like a dust magnet. There is also a purple Toy Town stamp, which is the explanation for the (MK) qualifier, and is possibly significant. SGC gave Mordecai Brown's Toy Town stamp T204 example its own variation, while PSA kept this in the normal Moose McCormick variant line item.
Attractive Ramlys are among the
most beautiful cards in the hobby, but
the eye appeal of the issue can sometimes suffer in the lower grades. The scarcity of this issue far outweighs any perceived cosmetic flaws on this example.