Remember, Prerelease Raichu was not a card printed for a prerelease, and what PFM said.
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The small detail I find interesting about Shadowless, is that they have the same varying features found on 1st edition copies - the fighting energy symbol is an easy one to notice; most thin stamp 1st editions & Shadowless prints seem to have the symbol heavily off-centre to the right, while it’s a lot rarer to see thick stamps & the occasional Shadowless copies with this.
Here are two Shadowless Machamp with different 1st edition stamps as an example:
I reckon this either points to Shadowless being a mixture of leftovers from the 1st edition print-runs, or that thin stamp 1st editions did come after thick stamps and were used as the basis to then crank out the Shadowless prints.
Shadowless (with OC fighting energy):
Thin Stamp 1st Ed (with OC fighting energy):
Shadowless (with centred fighting energy):
Thick Stamp 1st Ed (with centred fighting energy):
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This is the little details of info I love to see! Thank you for that!
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No worries! 
It’s not an exact science, but hopefully it’s enough of a pattern that we could maybe fill in a few blanks with how those first print-runs of Pokémon were put together.
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Maybe one day we’ll get those early days of Pokémon numbers
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It’d be wild if we did!
I’d settle for an exact timeline of how 1st edition & Shadowless prints played out.
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So would I
There has been a lot of discussion in this topic. The general consensus is that 1st edition and shadowless were not independent print.
This story checks out with the evidence presented above and some of the points made in the thread linked above. The stamping is an independent process from printing on the uncut sheets. The first print run was intended to be all 1st edition but instead was partially released as shadowless unlimited, presumably to get the cards onto the market faster. At some point the energy alignment was fixed and the stamps went from thick to thin. They printed more, made some 1st edition to make up for the shortage. It’s unclear if any of the prints were shadowless unlimited only. But what is clear is eventually they added the shadow and printed unlimited only
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Sorry to bring up old discussions. I just like learning about the early history of the Pokémon tcg
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I wonder if WotC also had similar printing inconsistencies with early Magic: The Gathering. These printing anomalies seem to be a result of inconsistent practices within their printers, and as such, I imagine MtG would have had the exact same types of problems. Though magic cards are, noticeably simpler than pokemon. Such a good game. Such a shame, Hasbro…
And this was the beginning of the end for WotC and PkMn…
I’m kidding. It was a terrible choice tho.
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