Bowman had Ted Williams in its 1954 set, at number 66, and then it did not. Topps had signed him to an exclusive contract that year, and very early in the print run Bowman took his card out and put Jimmy Piersall in its place.
Piersall was a Red Sox teammate, and he already had a card in the set, at number 210. So the 1954 Bowman checklist has the same Piersall card under two numbers, and most collectors count the Piersall #66 as the card that completes the set.
The 1954 Bowman set has the same Jimmy Piersall card twice, because of a card it took back.
The set itself is 224 cards in two series. Each front is a portrait in a white border, with a small pastel box in a lower corner holding the player's facsimile signature. The backs are drawn as a bat and ball, the number in the ball and the name along the bat, with a short biography and a trivia question.
The story of the withdrawal is told a few ways. The auction houses, nearly all of them, give the Topps contract as the reason. One account has Bowman printing the card before it realized he had signed elsewhere; another mentions a printing problem, and wonders whether that was a story for public consumption. All of them agree that the card was withdrawn very early.
It is regarded as one of the most significant rarities among postwar cards. High grades are difficult, with centering and print defects the usual problems.
