10.24.07 - About a year-and-a-half ago I purchased an 05 Prime Patches which clearly shows a cut from Frank's cap brim. A very rare cut indeed since, up to that point in 2006, I had never seen anything like it previously.

And for that reason I thought it was likely the very first GU cut from the brim that had been made. OTOH, I've been collecting a very long time and know from experience that you can't know it all - so I added the caveat "...to the best of my knowledge..." knowing it was possible such a card had been made in the past. Well, guess what. <g>

Now, at first glance this appears to be a "W". But after looking at it for a while, particularly the finishing pen stroke (where the ink culminates into a dark 'drop') - it becomes clear. This is the "3" from his well-known "35". When the card was produced this piece was laid off-center. If my read on this card is correct - then this makes this the earliest known Big Hurt authentic cap brim cut.

Check out the full 05 Prime Patches for comparison. (bottom right hand corner of page)

And please do not email me asking if this a fake - it's not. I can positively confirm it was not inked after the fact (someone inking onto a blank hat cut) - there is no bleeding into the window pane. Also, with card in hand, you can actually see the hat piece going under the die-cut window on all four sides. Finally, I can spot when a window has been cut after production - this wasn't. (please don't ask me to share that knowledge - I won't respond since there are too many sneaky muckers out there who would abuse it)