CURTEICHCOLOR GOLD HOF PLAQUES  -  INTRODUCTION

I'd like to present a brief guide on the gold/yellow Baseball Hall of Fame Postcards that were sold at the Baseball Hall of Fame Museum in Cooperstown, NY from 1965 through early 1978 and again in 1980. This particular guide will focus on the Curteichcolor postcards and not the Mike Roberts/Scenic Arts postcards which the Hall of Fame started selling in 1981 and to this day is still selling in the gift shop.

I will try to present the information I have on these cards as best and factual as I can based on the information I have been able to obtain and I would appreciate any additional information that you might have to offer. If you have any additional information, or notice an error, please let me know using the e-bay message feature. Once again I would like to thank Bob Hicks for his wonderful ebay guides and for providing me the format for this guide and my guide to  the Sepia HOF plaque postcards. I would also like to thank Kenneth Richard for his invaluable information in helping me put this guide together.

THE BASICS - CURTEICHOLOR GOLD/YELLOW PLAQUES

Curteichcolor gold HOF postcards replaced the Artvue HOF Postcards which were produced from 1956 until 1963. These should not be confused with the Mike Roberts/Scenic Arts postcards that are currently being sold in the gift shop of the Baseball Hall of Fame. Completing a set of these cards can prove to be somewhat of a challenge due to the short print run of a few of the inductees. When the postcards came out in 1965 all of the HOF members from 1936 to 1964 were sequentially numbered in alphabetical order starting with Grover Cleveland Alexander (if you look in the upper right hand corner of the pre 1965 inductees there will be a number starting with 5DK). Starting in 1965 the inductees for each class had its own unique numbering system (i.e. on the back of the postcards for the 68 inductees you will see the numbers start with 8DK). There are some exceptions however, as you would expect with the hall of fame postcards. The gift shop did not print any postcards for the class of 1967 in the year of 1967. The inductees from the 67 class were printed in 1968 prior to the printing of the cards for the inductees from the class of 68. Another exception is Ted Williams - his card was printed and released with the 67 class even though he was inducted in 1966.

Everything was going along smoothly enough until 1976. This is when the variations really started to kick in. Prior to 1976 all of the text on the back of the Curteichcolor cards was printed in green ink. For some reason they decided they now wanted the ink on the back of the cards to be black. Only now the inductees issued from 1976 and on have a unique numbering sequence: anything issued prior to 1976 has the same number assigned to it when it was issued orignially (green ink). For instance, the Babe Ruth Curteichcolor card would have the same number on the back no matter whether it was printed with green or black ink, whereas Bob Lemon has his own unique number on the back since he originated with the 76 printing. Now we start having guys issued with backs printed in both black and green inks. The print size varied between the 76 and 77 postcards so we can tell the difference between the cards of those years. The 1980 print run is even easier to identify due to the "Printed in Ireland" notation in the upper right hand corner of the postcards. In 1978 and 1979 the Hall of fame experimented with the look of the postcards and gave us the Dexter Press HOF postcards (discussed in another ebay guide). The Dexter Press postcards were poorly received due to not being a very good media for autographs and Curteichcolor again took over the production of the gold/yellow postcards for the 1980 year before relinquishing the publishing rights to Mike Roberts in 1981.

CURTEICHCOLOR HALL OF FAME PLAQUE CHECKLIST

Based on the postcards in my collection and other information I have obtained from other collectos I believe there to be 165 different player postcards in the Curteichcolor set. I have in my collection 151 different postcards with the green ink text on the back and 86 with the black ink text on the back. Please email me with any additions. The only Curteichcolor postcard I don't have is the Larry MacPhail. If anyone has an extra I would be more than happy to trade or purchase the card from them. Please let me know.  The following list is the players who have Curteichcolor postcards available:

Alexander, Grover      green                                                                                                                                                                                                            Anson, Cap                  both 
Appling, Luke              both
Averill, Earl                 both
Baker, Frank                both
Bancroft, Dave           green
Banks, Ernie               only exists in black
Barrow, Ed                  green
Beckley, Jake               green
Bell, Cool Papa           both
Bender, Chief               green
Berra, Yogi                  both
Bottomley, Jim             both
Boudreau, Lou            green
Bresnahan, Roger         both
Brouthers, Dan              green
Brown, Mordecai         both
Bulkeley, Morgan          green
Burkett, Jesse               both
Campanella, Roy          both
Carey, Max                   green
Cartwright, Alexander    both
Chadwick, Henry           green
Chance, Frank               green
Charleston, Oscar         only exists in black
Chesbro, Jack               both
Clarke, Fred                 both
Clarkson, John              green
Clemente, Roberto         both
Cobb, Ty                      both
Cochrane, Mickey         both
Collins, Eddie                both
Collins, Jimmy               both
Combs, Earle                green
Comiskey, Charlie         both
Conlan, Jocko              both
Connolly, Tom               both
Connor, Roger               only exists in black
Coveleski, Stan              green
Crawford, Sam               green
Cronin, Joe                     green
Cummings, Candy           green
Cuyler, Kiki                    green
Dean, Dizzy                     green
Delahanty, Ed                  both
Dickey, Bill                      both
Dimaggio,Joe                  both
Duffy, Hugh                     both
Evans, Billy                      green
Evers, Johnny                   green
Ewing, Buck                     both
Faber, Red                       green
Feller, Bob                       both
Flick, Elmer                      green
Ford, Whitey                    both
Foxx, Jimmie                    green
Frick, Ford                       green
Frisch, Frankie                  green
Galvin, Pud                       both
Gehrig, Lou                      both
Gehringer, Charlie           both
Gibson, Josh                     both
Gomez, Lefty                    green
Goslin, Goose                   both
Greenberg, Hank              both
Griffith, Clark                   both
Grimes, Burleigh              both
Grove, Lefty                     both
Hafey, Chick                    green
Haines, Jesse                    both
Hamilton, Billy                  green
Harridge, Will                   green
Harris, Bucky                    green
Hartnett, Gabby                green
Heilmann, Harry                green
Herman, Billy                    both
Hooper, Harry                   green
Hornsby, Rogers                both
Hoyt, Waite                       green
Hubbard, Cal                    only exists in black
Hubbell, Carl                     green
Huggins, Miller                   green
Irvin, Monte                       green
Jennings, Hugh                    green
Johnson, Ban                      green
Johnson, Judy                    both
Johnson, Walter                  green
Kaline, Al                           only exists in black
Keefe, Tim                         green
Keeler, Willie                     green
Kelley, Joe                         green
Kelly, George                     green
Kelly, King                         green
Kiner, Ralph                      both
Klein, Chuck                      only exists in black
Klem, Bill                           both
Koufax, Sandy                    green
Lajoie, Nap                        green
Landis, Kenesaw M.           both
Lemon, Bob                        only exists in black
Leonard, Buck                    both
Lindstrom, Fred                  only exists in black
Lopez, Al                           only exists in black
Lyons, Ted                         green
Mack, Connie                    green
MacPhail, Larry                 only exists in black
Mantle, Mickey                  both
Manush, Heinie                   green
Maranville, Rabbit               both
Marquard, Rube                 both
Mathewson, Christy             green
McCarthy, Joe                     green
McCarthy, Tommy               green
McGinnity, Joe                     both
McGraw, John                     green
McKechnie, Bill                   green
Medwick, Joe                      green
Musial, Stan                        both
Nichols, Kid                        green
O'Rourke, Jim                     green
Ott, Mel                              both
Paige, Satchel                      green
Pennock, Herb                    green
Plank, Eddie                        both
Radbourn, Charlie               both
Rice, Sam                           green
Rickey, Branch                    both
Rixey, Eppa                        both
Roberts, Robin                   only exists in black
Robinson, Jackie                both
Robinson, Wilbert               both
Roush, Edd                         green
Ruffing, Red                       both
Ruth, Babe                          both
Schalk, Ray                        green
Sewell, Joe                        only exists in black
Simmons, Al                      green
Sisler, George                   both
Snider, Duke                     only exists in black
Spahn, Warren                  both
Spalding, Al                       green
Speaker, Tris                    both
Stengel, Casey                  green
Terry, Bill                          both
Thompson, Sam                 both
Tinker, Joe                        both
Traynor, Pie                      green
Vance, Dazzy                    green
Waddell, Rube                  both
Wagner, Honus                 green
Wallace, Bobby                green
Walsh, Ed                         both
Waner, Lloyd                    green
Waner, Paul                      both
Ward, John                       green
Weiss, George                  green
Welch, Mickey                 both
Wheat, Zack                    green
Williams, Ted                  both
Wright, George                green
Wright, Harry                   green
Wynn, Early                     green
Yawkey, Tom                  only exists in black
Young, Cy                       both
Youngs, Ross                   green

Please let me know if there are any more that are possible, as I am certain this is not all that exist.

CURTEICHCOLOR  HOF PLAQUES AUTOGRAPHED

Based on what I have seen in the marketplace there are 73 or 74 possible autographs in the Curteichcolor set depending upon if you consider the autograph Roy Campanella produced after his accident to be a valid, authentic autograph. I have put the players that have autographs available in itallics in the above list. Please let me know if there are any additions or corrections. Completing a set of autographed Curteichcolor could prove to be quite a challenge due to the difficulty of the big 3 (Bancroft, Foxx & Goslin). Robinson, Hafey, & Hubbard are tougher than most of the others to find, but not as difficult as the big 3.