Sam Mertes in the 1905 version of the New York Giants uniform, note the period after the “Y”. Likely taken in Spring Training based on the background.
Of particular interest is the reverse of a penny in the upper left corner, such type penny went out of circulation by 1909.
Shawn Hennessey, Director of the Chevron and Diamonds Collection, solved the mystery. As he explains:
“It is interesting that the penny inadvertently limits the photograph’s recency in that the pattern for the Indian Head cent ran until 1909. But as to the reason for the imprinting of the obverse of the penny, one must be familiar with working in a darkroom and with the photographic papers of this era.
Paying particular attention to the penny image, one can observe that it was not placed during the exposing of the negative onto the photo paper as indicated by the presence of the coin’s markings across its obverse. Placement on the paper during exposure would have blocked light from reaching the emulsion resulting in a white circle.
It is well established that the photographic paper of the Deadball Era is very lightweight and thin. In certain environmental conditions (temperature, humidity), the paper would be prone to curling. During exposure, the glass plate negative was placed directly onto the paper and exposed to a controlled light source. Any curling was mitigated as the full weight of the negative held the paper flat.
How did the details of the coin transfer to the paper?
After the photographic paper is exposed, it is submerged into a bath of developing chemical (“developer”) until the image is revealed. Once the darkroom technician is satisfied with the developing, the print is removed from the developer and submerged into a second chemical bath (known as “stop bath”) to neutralize the developing chemicals. A third bath is used to neutralize the stop bath and free the print from the first two process chemicals (today, known as “fixer”).
For most of the Indian Cent’s production, the coin’s material consisted of 95% copper with the remaining 5% being a fairly even blend of tin and zinc. No doubt, the darkroom technician was struggling with this print curling while in the developing process and used the most readily available weight at his disposal…a penny. It is doubtful that the technician was aware that the chemicals would interact with the copper in the coin and the photo paper’s emulsion causing an image transfer of the penny’s bosses to the print.
In my opinion, this darkroom error resulted in such a wonderful result!”.
The photo is indeed printed on very thin paper, and placing a penny over the penny in the print results in a perfect fit. Mystery solved, thanks Shawn!
