God Tier Double Swirls

[Dyl]

List of Cards w/ Confirmed “Close” Double Swirls

Promos
Ancient Mew
Entei
Dark Persian (partial)
Rocket’s Hitmonchan Best of Game Winner
Rocket’s Mewtwo Best of Game Winner
Lapras (HGSS Promo)
Meowth
Pichu
Rainbow Energy
Recycle Energy

Gym Heroes 1st Edition
Blaine’s Moltres
Erika’s Clefable (partial quad swirl)
Lt. Surge’s Magneton
Misty (Trainer)
Misty’s Seadra
Misty’s Tentacruel
Rocket’s Hitmonchan
Lt. Surge’s Electabuzz

Gym Heroes Unlimited
Blaine’s Moltres
Erika’s Clefable
Erika’s Vileplume
Lt. Surge’s Magneton
Misty’s Seadra
Misty’s Tentacruel
The Rocket’s Trap (partial)

Thunderstorm Theme Deck
Zapdos - Cosmos Holo

Gym Challenge Unlimited
Erika’s Venusaur (partial)
Giovanni’s Persian (partial)
Misty’s Golduck
Giovanni’s Gyarados

Koga (partial)

Neo Genesis 1st Edition
Ampharos
Azumarill
Feraligatr (5/111)
Jumpluff
Kingdra
Metal Energy
Pichu
Skarmory
Slowking
Typhlosion (T17)

Neo Genesis Unlimited
Bellossom
Feraligatr (4/111)
Heracross
Jumpluff
Meganium (11/111)
Pichu
Slowking
Steelix
Togetic
Typhlosion (T17)
Typhlosion (T18)
Metal Energy(4 swirl possible)

Neo Discovery Unlimited
Espeon (partial)
Houndour (partial)
Houndoom (partial)
Politoed (partial)
Scizor (partial)
Smeargle (partial)
Unown A (partial)
Ursaring (partial)
Wobbuffet (partial)
Yanma (partial)

Neo Revelation 1st Edition
Shining Magikarp

Neo Revelation Unlimited
Houndoom
Shining Gyarados
Delibird (not sure if unlimited or 1st edition)

Platinum Base
Delcatty

Undaunted
Espeon

Call of Legends
Lugia
Umbreon

---

Non-English Language Cards

Dutch
Fossil 1st Edition - Aerodactyl
Fossil 1st Edition - Haunter (partial)
Fossil 1st Edition - Kabutops (partial)
Fossil Unlimited - Lapras (partial)

French
Fossil 1st Edition - Haunter
Fossil 1st Edition - Hitmonlee
Fossil 1st Edition - Kabutops

Fossil 1st Edition - Magneton

German
Jungle Unlimited Clefable
Fossil 1st Edition - Aerodactyl
Fossil 1st Edition - Zapdos
Fossil Unlimited - Hypno
Fossil Unlimited - Raichu
Fossil Unlimited - Kabutops (partial)
Fossil Unlimited - Dragonite
Fossil Unlimited - Lapras
Team Rocket Unlimited - Rainbow Energy (partial)

Italian
Base Set 1st Edition - Machamp (partial)
Neo Genesis Unlimited - Togetic (partial)
Team Rocket 1st Edition - Dark Blastoise (partial)

Neo Revelation Unlimited - Raikou

Portuguese
Fossil 1st Edition - Articuno (partial)

Spanish
Fossil 1st Edition - Haunter
Fossil 1st Edition - Hypno

Note: Earliest set with a confirmed close double swirl is the Meowth & Dark Persian Black Star Promo or Gym Heroes 1st Edition. Latest set before the holo pattern changed was Call of Legends.

[smokemon]

There’s dozens of us! (Ok maybe like 3-4 of us)

[Dyl]

Hey, the more the merrier!

Gorgeous T17 Double Swirl for sale!

Pokemon Typhlosion 1st Edition Neo Genesis PSA SGC T17 Double Swirl Mint | eBay

[smokemon]

[Dyl]

These are gorgeous @smokemon!

[Dyl]

One of my favorite double swirls.

[xileets]

When One just won’t cut it.

[xileets]

They’re like wingtip vortexes as lugia flies away.

[Dyl]

I love when the holographic pattern interacts with the artwork to create a cohesive story.

[smokemon]

[pinn033]

Heh… I really love these double swirls but I don’t like to talk about it to loudly because I fear people would capitalize on them or hoard em and sell at 20x value. I came up with a few that I want for my pokédex and then I’m good. ^^ also, I learned there are allot of secret keepers in the hobby so I assume many people are reading this but are just staying quiet. Or maybe I’m crazy, who knows. Still love these though. Oh and the double globes as well, but I think those are rarer.

[Dyl]

Neo Genesis Pichu is so adorable. Those double swirls really add to the artwork.

[Dyl]

@pinn033

also, I learned there are allot of secret keepers in the hobby so I assume many people are reading this but are just staying quiet.

There is definitely some truth to this. I read content on e4 for years before I finally decided to make an account.

@pinn033

Heh… I really love these double swirls but I don’t like to talk about it to loudly because I fear people would capitalize on them or hoard em and sell at 20x value.

I think most of the people attempting to corner a portion of the market or engage in “buy-outs” are gone by now. But who knows, there could be a hoarder or two out there with massive positions.

[pinn033]

Don’t want to bring negativity here so I will share this one as well.

Oh ye, and in the god tier orb’s thread such a double globe dragonite was posted. Don’t have any of those myself unfortunately.

[smokemon]

I had the same thoughts as you. In the time being, I think the majority of people don’t see value in them or most people enjoy them but they’re more of a random chance item then a sought after collectible. Or maybe they’re still undiscovered to some?

I think we’ve reached an interesting time in collecting where errors, oddities, and printing anomalies are starting to gain wider recognition and I partly attribute CGC to this phenomenon. It’s already fun to look back into our binders or bulk cards with the possible thrill of finding something new or highly limited. It’s like having a secret 1/1!

Personally, double swirls were an intro into errors and it allowed me to collect without having to worry so much about condition. They were a breath of fresh air honestly.

And as for shedding light on them, I thought about this too but they’re so hard to find that I would challenge people to search.

[Dyl]

@smokemon

I think we’ve reached an interesting time in collecting where errors, oddities, and printing anomalies are starting to gain wider recognition and I partly attribute CGC to this phenomenon. It’s already fun to look back into our binders or bulk cards with the possible thrill of finding something new or highly limited. It’s like having a secret 1/1!

CGC has definitely improved the recognition of error cards. I am sure that Instagram and forums have also increased their popularity too.

Every time I see an e4 thread on some obscure error or printing oddity, I feel compelled to look through my cards.

[pigeonsyndicate]

@smokemon

And as for shedding light on them, I thought about this too but they’re so hard to find that I would challenge people to search.

Yeah, I have yet to find one of those true double swirls. I’ve seen plenty where the swirl is spaced far enough apart that the swirl appears on both the left and right edge, but I’ve never actually owned a double swirl where both are clearly visible within the frame.

[smokemon]

This touches on horizontal vs. vertical double swirls. The double horizontal swirls can exist on both Japanese and WotC cards. Double vertical swirls only exist on WotC.

WotC uses much larger card stock sheets (more cards per row x column) than Japanese card stock. Because of the larger size of the card stock, WotC has to repeat the holographic cosmos pattern in order to cover the larger plot. My best guess is that the holographic pattern was repeated in a truncated style as opposed to a continuous repeating pattern. We can see evidence of this usually through a split line. The split line (not a print line) is part of the card stock where the patterns were placed against one another and is present for every vertical swirl. A black line drawn on the Hitmonchan shows said line. Some of the holo bubbles are chopped off.

Now let me go to a base set uncut Japanese sheet. The visible swirls are circled. We can see that the distance between the swirl on Alakazam and Hitmonchan is just wide enough to fit within the holographic borders to make a double horizontal swirl. As for the vertical distance in swirls between Hitmonchan and Chansey, these are much too far apart for a vertical double swirl to exist. The picture might not be high quality but the listed uncut sheet has enough holo bleed where I cannot see a swirl between the vertical swirls. I’m also assuming the Japanese holographic pattern is consistent from Base Set to Neo.

[Dyl]

This is very interesting!

Do we know when the vertical double swirls began to drift off-center from each other (e.g., like in Call of Legends below)?

[smokemon]

The Call of Legends holo pattern is a different design than the one in the WotC era. My knowledge falls off pretty quickly after e-series but this card is still amazing! Have you found double swirls on any other cards from this era?