printing (misprinting) question

[dry cereal]

I have another question directed at: THE HAMMER!

Is this an organic misprint that can happen, where the corners aren't 90 degree angles?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1966-Topps-Don- ... 19e25824b5

how does that happen?

[hammr7]

Can it happen? sure!

There are many ways cards get cut from sheets. Some cards go through continuous rectangular cutters. These are like huge arrays of cookie cutters that cut the top, bottom, and both sides simultaneously (if stamping) or continuously (if on an embossed roll). For card sheets the stamping is more common, for continuous rolls of printed material the embossed roll is an alternative.

As another variation, rounded corners are sometimes part of the "cookie cutter" array. The alternative is having grinders remove material to round the corners.

The Drysdale card is from the 60's. At that time the printing and cutting operations were usually separated to improve machine uptime and lower the amount of material that had to be scrapped (no computer controlled or automated anything back then).

Sheets would be fed into machines that would cut the sheets in the direction the sheet was being pulled, effectively into strips (think either rows or columns in a typical uncut sheet). When enough strips had been cut, a machine operator would take the large stack of strips, rotate them by 90 degrees, and feed the stack into another cutting station. This second station would cut the strip into individual cards.

Perpendicular happens when the strips are properly aligned and fed through both cutting stations. A miscut like the Drysdale card happens when a sheet gets through the first cutting station fine, but one side slips when fed through the second cutting station. Since the front edge of the strip is no longer perpendicular to the cut, you get non-perpendicular corners.

[dry cereal]

THE MAN DELIVERS!