Hi Everyone
I’m on a search for more informations on this card. Short story. I got this card in elementary school around 2000-2002 from a magazin called “Junior”. According to chatgpt/Google AI these were promotional cards when they tried to introduce TCG in Hungary.
Has anyone else seen such card before (Probably only Hungarians)? Does anyone has any infos on this? Whats interesting in it is the “MINTA” watermark behind the English text. MINTA means Sample.
Welcome to the forum
Can you give us more information about this? Do you know which volume of magzine, or can we know the year it may have been? We should first try to track down which volume of magazine that would have been in.
I wouldn’t trust asking AI, they just make up stuff because they are incapable of saying “I can’t find information on this” so I will ignore that part.
I don’t see why they would put production samples in a consumer product, that almost seems like a mistake. Its entirely possible they were going to print in the Hungarian language, but decided not to and that perhaps this was as far as they got, just a sample card that was testing out for some local print facility.
This is a strange one.
Just to be sure its not a fake I’ll let others examine the images further. @Nightvulture does the rosette pattern look okay to you? Could this have been printed in the Belgium facility?
I can’t find which issue of the magazine this came with. I can look around in our storage room because I might have some in one of my old boxes. But I’m not sure I have the right one.
I found a picture of an issue with Mewtwo Returns on the front but I can’t say if it was in that. It is also hard to find pictures of this magazine.
Thank you for any help with this!
Its offset printed just like a normal pokemon card. The angles are some of the same ones that Pokemon uses back in that timeframe. The big red flags are the text and the borders were not pre-printed. You’ll see that the plates print over the borders like Japanese cards. The e-series adapted this characteristic
I could go all day breaking down all the differences between this and another printing. Especially being base 2000.
this is 100% a counterfeit card and if it was found in a magazine, it shows how far people were willing to go to use the franchise to draw attention to their product. I bet they put sample since it was fake. Pretty cool artifact though and a story to go with it, i would preserve it. Thanks for sharing.
It would be very interesting to know if this was actually a wotc approved print
@packyman any godbook insight to this location/region?
Would be interesting to see the back but Belgium only printed two English sets. My understanding is they have been the main hub for the foreign printings since early wotc. Those early belgium error backs would have been on these too had they come from belgium and having that copyright. I kind of see where this could be “authentic” as the sample printing on the card kind of declares it is not necessarily a card, but showing what a card looks like.
Thank you all! This is really interesting and cool howmany things you can look for in a card. Me as a “layman” I could never see if its a counterfeit or not. Since on first glance for me it looks really like a normal card if I compare it to others. (Altough I don’t have any other old cards only newerones )
Here is a picture of the back side too. (Its in a really poor state). For me the only thing I noticed that the yellow in the Pokemon text is different colour then on a new card. But I don’t know if that was the colour they used back then or not.
The yellow color is pretty terrible, but it would have the error inside the E
I found this on Reddit:
Gubiam
Back in 1999 in Hungary Hasbro planned to translate Pokemon TCG to hungarian. Therefore made some events where it was anounced and sample cards were handed out. These are the so called “MINTA cards” (minta means sample), english, but a big MINTA label in the text box. These cards are highly chased in Hungary nowadays.
Here’s a link to the original comment. It’s from 9 months ago.
Other users have replied, pointing out that all European variants were printed in Holland or Belgium.
However, I do find it interesting that Gubiam’s description definitely matches this Wartortle (i.e. English print, but with “MINTA” beneath the text box). This at least shows that these cards are known and are in circulation to some degree, whether or not the Hasbro and the “highly chased in Hungary” claims are true.
This is really interesting to me. I also try to find out more about this on hungarian sites but this era is not well documented. When I have time I will also try to look through our storage room, I might find a few of that magazin stacked away somewhere. Maybe I still have the one in which this card came with.
I’m really curious who was the official distributor.
Except for what Nightvulture saw about the printing, the card really feels like a normal card. So they did put effort in it whoever made these.
Hit ot woth a light test, does it have a core?
What is a light test
what is a core
The layer of graphite inside the middle of the card. Its like glue. Can be Blue or Black in that early wotc
Horsea is just another black example.
This is fake…
Looks like its probably black core. Maybe it is “legit”
we are so back
I can’t get past the fact that the font, font size, font border, font position, font spacing is all incorrect and shares no resemblance with any variant of the card. (or any other for that matter)
There is a lot that doesn’t make sense with this card, especially for the time period of 2000-2002.
I find it very hard to believe this is an official card 
Looks very fake to me too
I was thinking about asking around some really old Card Game shops that were around since the 2000s if anyone knows something about this. Sadly the shop were I used to buy Yugioh cards back then is no longer there. So I will try to find one in another city that has been around for a while.
Well… there also has to be someone there that has been working there for atleast 25 years… So I don’t have much hope but I try.
At this point I’m really interested in the early life of TCG here in Hungary.
AI told me to check here to see if it is real, so whatever you want goes 
.
I have never heard of these, or seen these. I think it is more than likely a counterfeit promotional item. Has anyone been able to find additional samples?
Biggest red flag is definitely the ink over the border. Here is a well printed fake Japanese Team Rocket card.
