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 35 total examples of this 1909 Ramly T204 of Hall of Famer Miller Huggins.
Centering
is just slightly west on the canvas, but looks nice overall. There
is some edge wear and chipping that is so common
with the set's gold
borders, particularly in the corners. Each of the top two corners exhibit creasing, as well. Some surface abrasions, snow, and minor paper loss affect the portrait area, though Huggins' face for the most part is undisturbed, leaving the important part of the image nicely visible. The reverse has some staining and light paper loss, but the top left corner has the number 30 written in pencil, explaining the (MK) qualifier in the grade).
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 of the Hall of Famer.