You Gotta Have Faith

This is a 1960 Topps Venezuelan Billy Pierce. At least I believe it is. Unlike some of the other late 50s/early 60s sets that were distributed in that South American country the 1960 bunch had no identifying markings to distinguish it from it's US cousins.And it doesn't have a different color back like the '64 ones do.

The 1960 Venezuelan set is marked as 'PRTD. IN U.S.A.' along the right edge on the back and the reverse is all in English. The guides say that the cards have a lack of gloss which is sometimes helpful in distinguishing them. But sometimes not.

The scan makes the edges look better than they are, at least in the scan of the front. You get a clearer picture of the condition in the back scan.

I found this one on eBay not long ago and it was really cheap. Considering that it was the first example I've come across in my years of looking I was happy to nab it even in poor condition. Actually it's hard to find any of these in decent shape.

Truth be told if it was in better shape I'd be less inclined to believe it was actually a Venezuelan card. A high percentage of them I see for sale look a lot like this one.

Pierce was on two other cards released by Topps for the Venezuelan market. His 1964 (see below) and the 1959 Ace Hurlers #156 he shares with Robin Roberts. That one is another card I've never seen. The '64 Venezuelan is always on eBay, so much so that I've had to filter it out of my saved eBay search.

Here's a look at it, front and (black ink) back.

On a semi-related note I've discovered that the 1962 Shirriff Billy Pierce coin I've also been hunting forever was never issued. It was one of the 21 coins that were issued in the US by Salada but left out of Shirriff's Canadian version. The fact that it's included in checklists on the Trading Card Database and many other sites has been a false lead I've followed for years.