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.

SGC has only ever graded 12 total examples of this 1909 Ramly T204, with only four receiving a higher grade than the VG+ 3.5 offered here of Boston pitcher Gus Dorner.

Centering is just a hair south on the canvas, but looks really nice overall. There is some edge wear and chipping that is so common with the set's gold borders, particularly in the corners. The bottom right corner shows some creasing, and a little soiling appears at the bottom near the nameplate. There is some snow on the portrait, but Dorner still appears bright and stoic. The reverse is beautifully clean, especially compared to many other Ramlys we have seen, showing just faint signs of soiling near the bottom right corner. Soiling is not unusual for these cards, where the embossing can act like a dust magnet.

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.