Ancient Mew - Variants and Versions Differences

[pfm]

The Ancient Mew card may be one of the most iconic and unique Pokemon cards produced to date. Less known are the different variants of the card and new collectors may not appreciate the subtle difference between versions.

Quick reference guide - Check the copyright text:

1999 Ancient Mew I (“Nintedo” error)

© 1995, 1996, 1998 Nintedo/Creatures inc./GAMEFREAK inc.

1999 Ancient Mew I (Corrected version) OR 1999 Ancient Mew II

© 1995, 1996, 1998 Nintendo/Creatures inc./GAMEFREAK inc.

2000 International version [English]

© 1995, 96, 98, 99 Nintendo, Creatures, GAMEFREAK. © 1999-2000 Wizards.

2019 Japanese Ancient Mew (Mewtwo Strikes Back – Evolution)

© 2019 Pokémon/Nintendo/Creatures/GAME FREAK

2020 Korean Ancient Mew (Mewtwo Strikes Back – Evolution)

© 2020 Pokémon/Nintendo/Creatures/GAME FREAK

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1999 Japanese Versions

The Ancient Mew was originally made available through a promotional pamphlet exclusively released in Japan to commemorate the theatrical run of the movie Revelation Lugia on July 16th, 1999.

There are two main Japanese variants, distinguishable by holo patterns. They are often referred to as Ancient Mew I and Ancient Mew II. The image above on the left shows the speckle-style pattern of Ancient Mew I and the image to the right shows the orb and swirl cosmos foil of Ancient Mew II.

(Like the Mew itself, many PSA graded copies of this card are also ancient)

In addition to the holo pattern, the text in the copyright is also helpful in identifying variants. In fact, a third Japanese variant is revealed this way:

Ancient Mew I - “Nintedo” error

© 1995, 1996, 1998 Nintedo/Creatures inc./GAMEFREAK inc.

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Ancient Mew I - Corrected version

© 1995, 1996, 1998 Nintendo/Creatures inc./GAMEFREAK inc.

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Ancient Mew II

© 1995, 1996, 1998 Nintendo/Creatures inc./GAMEFREAK inc.
(Same as the corrected Ancient Mew I)

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Of the three versions, the Ancient Mew I corrected version tends to be the most coveted and most difficult to find. Below are examples of both PSA and CGC labels of the three variants. Keep in mind that there could be slight variations to these labels and the variants are frequently mislabeled!

As mentioned above, all versions of the 1999 Japanese Ancient Mew were released in a pamphlet, shown below. The first image shows the cover and the second shows the interior with a Japanese Ancient Mew card inserted in a plastic sleeve.

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2000 International Version [English]

(North American and International Release)

Pokemon: The Movie 2000 (a.k.a. “The Power of One”) was released in North American theaters on July 21st, 2000. The card distributed at theaters in a cellophane pack with a separate teaser card. Other countries had similar promotions - the pack containing an Ancient Mew with an information card printed in the native language (e.g. German, French, etc). Other than the teaser card, all international versions of the Ancient Mew are identical.

Click to see sealed copy

International copyright

© 1995, 96, 98, 99 Nintendo, Creatures, GAMEFREAK. © 1999-2000 Wizards.

Shown below are the PSA and CGC labels for the international version

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Mewtwo Strikes Back – Evolution Versions

On July 12, 2019, theaters in Japan were showing Mewtwo Strikes Back – Evolution. A new version of Ancient Mew was released alongside this movie. On September 30th, 2020 the movie was released in South Korea. Due to the delayed release, the Korean Ancient Mew released with the movie has different copyright text making it a unique version of the card.

2019 Japanese Ancient Mew

© 2019 Pokémon/Nintendo/Creatures/GAME FREAK

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2020 Korean Ancient Mew

© 2020 Pokémon/Nintendo/Creatures/GAME FREAK

PSA and CGC labels:

A similar pamphlet to the original Japanese version was produced for the 2019 Japanese version:

The 2020 Korean version was released in a cellophane pack as shown below:

[camrok37]

Super informative article as always. I find myself occasionally getting confused with the variants so this helps. Thanks for this!

[mrbubbles]

Really nice and informative article. Also serves as a handy checklist for anyone trying to collect all of the variant. Thanks for the great write up.

Cheers!

[mika]

Thanks for this super article !

[pokee]

Really enjoyed reading this. Keep it up!

[pokemoncollector7]

Definitely a PERFECT card. One of the best ever.

[Quuador]

Nice to see an updated version of the original article from 2012 - Ancient Mew – Version Differences (back then there were four Ancient Mew versions instead of six ).

Greetz,
Quuador

[pfm]

Yeah I binned the older thread so there’s no confusion with having the same information twice

[SolemnStar]

I’m not sure what is up here. But it doesn’t pass my “something is fishy here” detector.

https://www.psacard.com/cert/100290187

my conversation with seller

sellers communication with PSA

So why would I value this card in any special way if they destroyed what made it special? And still no real answer to what exactly is different. And now I DO want to know what the heck versions of the sealed card are. PSA says there are quite a few.

https://www.psacard.com/pop/packs/2000/wotc-pokemon-movie-2000-promo-cello-pack/164648

Cello Pack
Ancient Mew-Black Letters

Cello Pack
Ancient Mew-Black Letters-Orientation

Cello Pack
Ancient Mew-Gameboy Advertisement

Cello Pack
Ancient Mew-Norway

Cello Pack
Ancient Mew-Purple Letters

Cello Pack
Gameboy Advertisement

Cello Pack
Legendary Birds

Cello Pack
Legendary Birds-Italian

This seems dubious and I have more questions than answers.

[filthynwah]

Do the original 1999 cards and later 2019/2020 ones have any noticeable differences in print quality, holo patterns, or anything else? Or would they be tough to distinguish outside of the copyright text?

[cujucuyo]

They’re pretty much the same asides from the copyright AFAIK, I took this short video so you can see the pattern for 1999 JP ERR, 2019 JP and 2020 KR:

Ancient Mews

[filthynwah]

Thanks!

[amuletcoin420]

have been looking more into Ancient Mew recently, and it’s interesting how there are slightly different regional variants in terms of the sealed forms.

for example:

this one that is supposedly a Swedish variant. notice the Toys R’ US stamp and AHLENS (swedish retailer) on the insert.

I wonder if any of you have examples of other regional variants for the sealed 2000 international released.

[Quuador]

@amuletcoin420

I wonder if any of you have examples of other regional variants for the sealed 2000 international released.

Here is a pretty old thread discussing the sealed Ancient Mew variants: Sealed Mew Insert Variants.

But to show some example pictures:

Australian:

Danish:

Norwegian:

Swedish:

UK:

US:

These are all just pictures I’ve saved. I don’t own any of these above, not even the regular US sealed version. (Although I do have all six Ancient Mew as PSA-10 graded copies. )

I do have the almost complete set for the Moltres promo however. I’m only missing the Danish variant, although I’m still not sure whether that insert exists for the legendary birds or just the Ancient Mew, since I have yet to see any proof for any of the three birds.

Greetz,
Quuador

[amuletcoin420]

this is very cool. thanks for sharing

[cataclysm80]

I’m surprised that the dark misprint version of 2000 International Ancient Mew isn’t already included here.
I suppose it should be added now.

There’s some side by side photos to show how it’s different from a regular copy.

This misprint is a design error, which means that the mistake occurred at WotC, and isn’t the fault of the print facility.
As a design error, this misprint will appear on all sheets from this print run.
holofoil cards should have white ink applied before the CMYK ink, but this particular position on the sheet doesn’t have the white ink.
When WotC created the color separations, this sheet position was empty on the white ink layer, so the printing plates don’t apply any white ink here.

A sheet contained 90 cards, and 1 card per sheet has this misprint.

[cataclysm80]

What I actually came here to share, is a more exciting item that I’m pretty sure you haven’t seen before. Only a handful of people have seen it.

This is the Matchprint Color Proof for the 2000 International Ancient Mew print run.

Matchprint Color Proofs typically have a white back, because they’re printed on a special Imation Commercial Base paper instead of regular Pokemon cardstock.
But Commercial Base paper is not holofoil, so it isn’t ideal for Color Proofing holofoil cards.
Matchprint wasn’t intended for Color Proofing holofoil cards, usually you’d have to do a much more expensive Test Print at the actual print facility to dial in the color on holofoil cards.
Instead of doing an expensive Test Print, they went ahead with the Matchprint Color Proof, but instead of using Commercial Base paper, they applied the Matchprint to a piece of holofoil Pokemon sheet they had laying around the office.
This way the end result would be a holofoil Matchprint Color Proof.

This piece of holofoil Pokemon sheet they had laying around the office, had Pokemon card backs, with an unprinted holofoil front side.
If you didn’t know, sheets are typically printed one side at a time. They print a whole bunch of the back side first because it’s the same for all the cards, then they use those printed backs as needed for all the different sheet layouts.

So this Matchprint Color Proof has regular Pokemon card backs on the other side.
There’s no way to properly align the offset press printed backs with the Matchprint fronts, and they didn’t even try to accomplish that.
The regular Pokemon backs are rotated 90 degrees compared to how the front side is printed.

Definitely an interesting item.

[amuletcoin420]

are there any graded examples of the dark misprint version?