Issued in 1912 through the American Tobacco Company, the brown background cards we call "T207" today are a fascinating group, with varying degrees of rarity among cards in the set. With even the common cards significantly more difficult to find than their more populous T205 or T206 issues, T207 cards can be found with as many as eight different backs, though not all cards are available with each back. In fact, the "set" is actually comprised of two distinct groups, with 150 of the 200 known cards available with Recruit and Napoleon backs, and the remaining 50 available with Cycle, Broadleaf, Anonymous (Factory 3 or 25), or Red Cross backs. The 50 cards with tougher backs were issued later in the 1912 season and are very scarce, but there are a number of extreme rarities in the set - among them the card of pitcher Louis Lowdermilk.

Considered by many to be the key to the issue, the Lowdermilk card has a reputation for being the "Wagner" of the set, as decades' worth of collectors have had been faced with what seemed to be the nearly impossible task of finding one for their set. Of course, as is the case with many cards, the advent of the internet has brought people closer together and taught us that, while the T207 Lowdermilk is an extremely rare card, it is not an impossible one: PSA has graded 40 examples, and SGC 25. Despite this, the card remains an extreme rarity in comparison with most others in the set, and its legacy has kept it one of the most desirable cards in 20th Century tobacco collecting and certainly among the most valuable cards in the issue.

This example carries the added scarcity of the red Cycle back. While it is impossible to determine how many PSA has graded with this reverse, in general it is assumed that only about 20% of the cards in the Cycle/Broadleaf print run contain the Cycle back. This example, though clean and well-centered, has been graded GOOD 2 by PSA due to some vertical creasing across the center of the card. The beautiful red Cycle back is clean and relatively unblemished. A fantastic example of one of the most significant rarities of all the mainstream tobacco issues.

Size: medium
Condition: yes