Joe Malone Hockey Card #4 - Proof
Imperial Tobacco - 1911

Graded "Authentic" by SGC. Never before have proof cards been seen from the early days of hockey. This card of Joe Malone is one of only 17 total C55 Proofs known to exist and it documents some of the last changes made by the lithography company before the set was authorized to be commercially printed by Imperial Tobacco.

This one-of-a-kind C55 Proof possesses greater detail and clarity than a regular card issued by Imperial Tobacco, particularly on the player’s face, jersey, and glove. The outer portions and borders of the card have similar defining characteristics as does the background. The reverse side of the card is missing the line, “Born at Quebec City.” The lettering also has a narrower stroke and space has been added in-between the years 1909, 1910, and 1911 on the last line. The "C" in Quebec directly under Malone's name is more open.

There is a staple hole near Malone’s head on the obverse of the card. There are registration marks near all four corners. Two of the groups of registration marks incorporate black, red, blue and yellow lines.

Seventeen different C55 Proofs have recently been discovered and are now encapsulated by SGC (Sportscard Guaranty, LLC.) and PSA (Professional Sports Authenticator). These distinct cards were created by Imperial Tobacco in Toronto in 1911 to test both the printing process as well as to further refine each card before production. To date, they are the only C55 proof cards known.

They include:

#4 Joe Malone (RC, HOF), #6 Tom Dunderdale (HOF), #13 Alex Currie, #17 Jack Darragh (HOF), #19 Don Smith, #22 Larry Gilmour, #26 Skein Ronan, #28 Ernie Johnson (HOF), #29 Jack Marshall (HOF), #30 Harry Hyland (HOF), #31 Arthur Ross (HOF), #33 Gordon Roberts (HOF), #35 Ernest Russell (HOF), #37 James Gardiner (HOF), #38 Georges Vezina (RC, HOF), #40 Rocket Power, and #45 Jack Laviolette

MORE DETAILS about this Hockey card can be learned at http://c55proofs.com/