1963-64 Parkhurst Hockey Forum

The Canadiens' players on cards 80-98 in this set all have a puck with a signature on it. At first glance I thought it was the player's autograph, but the same signature appears on all these cards, and I can't decipher it. Doesn't correspond with any Canadiens players of the era.

It's possible that the first word is "Bier," which might indicate that the Canadien's legendary staff photographer David Bier took the photo that was the basis for the image on the card. But the rest? No idea.

Any clue? Anyone know anyone who worked at Parkhurst back in the day who's still alive?

Rice Lachine ? I don't own any of these and am just looking at a Gump Worsley card F/S on eBay magnified. Looks like an R ... but it could be B. Or it could also be gibberish? On the back of the cards for 30-cents + 5 wrappers you could get an autographed puck signed by one of three players. Might have something to do with that, but it adds a nice visual to the cards.

I couldn't find anything. In case you are wondering, this is what Bard says (could be completely wrong)

Unfortunately, the autograph on the puck featured on some Montreal Canadiens player cards in the 1963-64 Parkhurst hockey card set does not belong to any specific player. It's actually a stock, generic signature meant to represent an autograph without attaching it to a particular individual.

That would make the most sense. I think the OP signed up just to ask the question and will never been seen again. Ah well it gave me something to do for half-hour or so Wednesday night. 

That seems like a very odd artistic choice, given that they went out of their way to make a bunch of artistically distinctive cards that year (whether or not they knew it would be their last). And past Parkhurst sets had player autographs, so it's not like it was difficult. I wonder if they intended to have player autographs on the pucks but ran out of time before the production deadline?

(Who is Bard? Presuming they're some sort of authority)

(Yeah, I'm new here. Casual collector with a specific question. Prolly won't post often.)

Post as often as you like, or as little for that matter. It's an awesome site! I've just seen people (or bots?) in the past post a question, or ask how much there card is worth, or what set is this from etc. etc. and then never be seen or heard from again. I hope someone can help answer your question, but I have a feeling tpxcards might be as close as you're going to get ... but I've been wrong before.

No worries! 

TPX may indeed be right. I just found it weird that I couldn't find any discussion about that mystery signature anywhere on the web (except where I started it). And it's been sixty years, so I have to presume most if not all of the folks that had a role in the creation of that set are all long gone. Though if there's anyone left, I'd love to meet them!

Bard is Google's AI chatbot. With search engines becoming increasingly unreliable (by not searching for what you typed in) now I may end up asking Bard a question before eventually giving up. Unfortunately, AI chatbots are not (in my experience) reliable in answering questions correctly and/or accurately and will often use opinions posted online as if they were facts. And while the response seems authoritative, another issue (at least with Bard) is that it will not provide you with the sources that it uses to form its own knowledge.