CGC Cards Certifies Extremely Rare 1909-11 T206 Cad Coles with a Brown Back

Posted on 12/4/2024

Brown-backed Old Mill Southern League cards are one of the rarest types out of the whole T206 series.

CGC Cards™ has been entrusted once again to authenticate a vintage rarity from one of the most important baseball card sets ever created: the 1909-11 American Tobacco Company T206 set. Several of the earliest MLB Hall of Famers are featured in the set, making their cards highly sought after and very valuable. However, there are also lesser-known players from independent and minor leagues within the set that are still coveted due to the popularity of the T206 set, like this 1909-11 T206 Cad Coles Old Mill Southern League - Brown Back card that was certified as CGC Authentic.

Click images to enlarge.

Minor league players make up more than 100 cards of the total 524-card T206 set. Around 50 of those are players from the Southern League, which consisted of minor league baseball leagues in the South during the late 1800s and early 1900s. While large quantities were printed across the T206 set, the Southern League cards had a much shorter print run, making them rarer than other cards in the set.

Southern Leaguers can be found with two different advertisements on the back: Piedmont and Old Mill. Between the pair, the Old Mill Cigarette backs are harder to find. Old Mill ads that have a Brown Back are even rarer, making them even more valuable than their more common Black Back counterpart.

The Old Mill Brown Back cards were seemingly lost to the hobby for decades until recent years. Unearthed in the early 2000s, many collectors assumed that Brown Back variations were just faded copies of the more prominent Black Back cards. This was a common misconception at the time, but as more Old Mill Brown Back cards were discovered, the Brown variant became more accepted and recognized by the collecting community.

Most of the minor league players in the T206 set are names the average baseball fan has never heard of. They include some players who made it to the Big Leagues but never truly made their mark in the MLB. One of those players was Cad Coles, who spent most of his time in the minors, but did play one season in the majors with the Kansas City Packers in 1914.

Coles grew up on a plantation in South Carolina before playing baseball in college for Clemson University. After several seasons in the minors, he had a short-lived stint in the pros, starting with his MLB debut in April 1914 after the Federal League became a major league, competing with the American and National leagues. Coles made his final majors appearance in September of that same season, ending his MLB career with a .253 batting average, 49 hits and one home run.

Although he may not have left a resounding legacy in the MLB, Coles will forever be connected to arguably the most coveted and important baseball card set ever created. Beloved for the cards' small size, colorful designs and artistic renderings of players, the 1909-11 American Tobacco Company T206 set offers a broad look into the sport of baseball at the turn of the 20th century.

From cards of minor leaguers like Cole to cards of Hall of Famers like Ty Cobb, Tris Speaker and Honus Wagner (which has, at times, had the distinction of being the most valuable and expensive sports card in the world), each card in the set is a historical artifact of America's favorite pastime.

Related Link:
1909-11 T206 Population Report


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