Black Lotus Misprint Mystery

 

Recently there has been some controversy on the MTG misprint 

subreddit and in various email threads about the authenticity 

of this card: 

 

 

I was contacted by the owner of the card and asked for my opinion on its authenticity.

 

 Firstly, let me say that he did not ask me to write this blog post, I'm not affiliated with him in any way 

and have no incentive to write this post other than my own interest in the topic. 

The question is: is this card a genuine test print/misprint. Or stated another way, was this card printed by a WotC 

employee?

 

At first glance the card appears to be fake. It's clearly printed on top of a 2000 championship blank.

My immediate assumption was that someone used the technique presented on my blog to simply print on top 

of the blank. I responded as much, but then added that I couldn't know for sure without seeing the card under 

a jeweler's loupe. A few months later I was sent this:

 

 

We clearly see a rosette pattern. The rosette pattern does not match that of

 a real lotus nor would we expect it to since the original lotus plates are assumed to be destroyed.  

 

A rosette pattern is an anti counterfeit measure that is worked into a printing plate used in offset lithography

 printing.  

We also see that the art was clearly printed on top of the blank. Notice the art alignment. 

 

 

In my opinion, a rosette pattern can ONLY be produced from a stamp being pressed into the card. 

 

This card was not created using an inkjet printer nor was it created using a laser jet as many people

 in the magic community are incorrectly stating. 

Inkjets simply do not have the capability of printing at a resolution fine enough to create the pattern

 we see under the loupe.

 

 Laser printers also are not capable of printing at this resolution. I know of no technique that 

would allow laser toner to adhere to an actual magic card and 

even if somehow the toner could adhere to the card the heat would likely cause warping.

 

The bottom line is home printers can not print such an extraordinarily fine resolution--not even close. 

So now you can see why I find this card so interesting. Either this person invented the greatest proxy 

technique of all time or this card was printed by an offset lithography printer.

So we have a mystery on our hands and other interesting clues to examine. 

Notice the dot in the text box. 

It appears to be an attempt to reproduce the dot present in an actual lotus.

 

I suppose if someone were to attempt to print this card and sell it off as a test print it might occur to

 them to reproduce this dot, but why would they try to sell a test print when they clearly have the technology to 

print the most convincing fakes of all time? 

The font exhibits no rosette pattern of its own which genuine cards do not. This is because the font is

 stamped onto a card in a separate process from stamping the art as is done in authentic cards.

 The font also appears to match perfectly the font of a real lotus. 

Here is close up of the font of the casting cost:

  

 

The font looks beautiful. This sharpness of font can only be attained by pressing

typeset onto the card.

Here is another interesting piece of the puzzle. 

 

 

Those appear to be Machine Identification Code (MIC) dots. Decoding the MIC dots should be able to 

identify the printer used and solve the mystery. Unfortunately dot codes are kept secret and we don't even

 know what printer was used, if we did we could contact the manufacturer and ask about the dots and perhaps 

track down the guy who printed it or at least prove what printer was used.

Then several months after I was contacted this post appeared on Reddit 

https://www.reddit.com/r/magicTCG/comments/1bxrcie/black_lotus/   asking if these are real cards:

They appear to be made by whomever made the lotus in question. Attempts to reach the poster to ask for 

clues about the origins of their cards have failed.

So this leaves us with many clues and no clear answers.

 

Its a rather unfortunate circumstance for the owner who 

contacted me. The card will only have value if it can be authenticated and it saddens me that the Magic 

community so quickly dismissed his claims despite being presented with a rosette pattern.

Now I should state that there are plenty of fake cards printed with rosette patterns. These fakes, so far, have 

come out of China and are printed on offset lithography printers, 

but they use counterfeit card stock and thus are easy to ID as fake when held. 

This lotus has a rosette pattern printed on genuine card stock. This is not something that the Chinese proxy 

makers would produce or maybe even could produce.

My personal speculation is that some WotC employee wanted to make proxies for themselves. 

They obviously had the technology to produce an unbelievable fake, but instead chose to go out 

of their way to make the card look like a proxy. They didn't even bother to check their spelling.  

These oversights, to me, imply good will on the part of the maker. 

 

I have no idea why they had a plate made with lotus art on it, but they did. They also had the font type on

hand. Did they perhaps attach this 2000 championship blank to a carrier sheet and run it through an offset printer?

Who would have the ability to print such a compelling reproduction so casually other than 

a WotC employee or someone who worked with WotC in the past? 

What do you think?

Can anyone at WotC verify the authenticity of this card?