Uncut Sheets of 1951 Bowman Football Cards
I have never seen a sheet of 1951 Bowman football cards, but since 1950 Bowman and 1952 Bowman sheets were configured identically, I am guessing that 1951 Bowman sheets were configured the same way. All three 1950-1952 Bowman sets--or four, if you count both 1952 Small and Large--contain 144 cards. The 1950 and 1952 sets were printed on four sheets each, with cards 1-36 arranged in sequence on the first sheet, cards 37-72 arranged in sequence on the second sheet, and so on. Some cards in the 1950 and 1952 sets are oriented horizontally, and on the sheets these cards were rotated 90 degrees to the left. Applying these characteristics to the 1951 Bowman set, I got the four sheet configurations below.
If you hold your cursor above any of the cards, your browser should show you the name of the player and the number of the card. Clicking on a card will bring up the full-sized scan. (A real uncut sheet would not have lines between the cards--that's an effect of scanning them individually.)
The first sheet held cards numbered 1 through 36. It looked like this:
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This table shows how the cards were arranged by number on the first sheet:
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 |
| 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 |
| 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 |
| 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35 | 36 |
The second sheet held cards numbered 37 through 72. It looked like this:
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And it was numbered like this:
| 37 | 38 | 39 | 40 | 41 | 42 | 43 | 44 | 45 |
| 46 | 47 | 48 | 49 | 50 | 51 | 52 | 53 | 54 |
| 55 | 56 | 57 | 58 | 59 | 60 | 61 | 62 | 63 |
| 64 | 65 | 66 | 67 | 68 | 69 | 70 | 71 | 72 |
The third sheet held cards numbered 73 through 108:
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And it was numbered like this:
| 73 | 74 | 75 | 76 | 77 | 78 | 79 | 80 | 81 |
| 82 | 83 | 84 | 85 | 86 | 87 | 88 | 89 | 90 |
| 91 | 92 | 93 | 94 | 95 | 96 | 97 | 98 | 99 |
| 100 | 101 | 102 | 103 | 104 | 105 | 106 | 107 | 108 |
Finally, the fourth sheet held cards numbered 109 through 144. It looked like this:
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And it was numbered like this:
| 109 | 110 | 111 | 112 | 113 | 114 | 115 | 116 | 117 |
| 118 | 119 | 120 | 121 | 122 | 123 | 124 | 125 | 126 |
| 127 | 128 | 129 | 130 | 131 | 132 | 133 | 134 | 135 |
| 136 | 137 | 138 | 139 | 140 | 141 | 142 | 143 | 144 |
Looking at PSA's population report, I found that it supports the sheet configurations above. According to the population report, the cards with fewest examples graded PSA 8 and better are numbers 1, 9, 39, 43, 45, 54, 73, 74, 81, 117, 118, 121, 125, 126, 127, 135, 136, 138, 139, and 144. Of these twenty cards, eight appear on the corners of the sheets I propose above, ten are on the edges, and only two--cards 121 and 125--are in the interior. As a rule, cards on the corners and edges of uncut sheets tended to get damaged in production, so corner and edge cards tend to be scarcer than cards from the interior of the sheets. The sheet configurations above follow that rule.
Also, it appears to me that the fourth sheet above was printed in somewhat smaller numbers than the other sheets. According to PSA's report, PSA has graded fewer than 60 each of cards 117, 127, 135, 136, and 139. No cards on any of the other sheets have populations below 60.
For more virtual uncut sheets, see the Gallery's master uncut sheet page.