You are looking at a Jungle holo, the flower symbol is not there, and now you are wondering whether the card is fake. It almost certainly is not. You have found one of the best known printing quirks of the era.
What happened
When Jungle moved from 1st Edition into the Unlimited print run, the early Unlimited sheets went out with the Jungle set symbol left off the holographic cards. Wizards of the Coast noticed and put the symbol back for later Unlimited printings, which is why both versions exist and why the missing symbol version is the earlier of the two.
How to check a card
The Jungle symbol is a small flower and it sits at the bottom right of the card, near the card number. On an affected card that space is simply empty. The card number itself is still printed, so you will still see something like 12/64.
Three things to confirm before you get excited:
- It has to be a holo. Only the holographic cards were affected. A non holo Jungle card with no symbol is a different conversation.
- It has to be Unlimited, so no 1st Edition stamp.
- The number still reads out of 64. If it reads out of 102 you are holding Base Set, which genuinely has no set symbol at all, by design.
How many are there
Jungle has 16 holos, and each one exists as a no symbol Unlimited version, so the full error run is 16 cards. That makes it a collectable sub set in its own right rather than a one off misprint, and it is the reason a lot of Jungle collectors end up needing three tick boxes per holo: 1st Edition, Unlimited with no symbol, and Unlimited with the symbol.
The point people get wrong
Base Set has no set symbol either, and that is completely normal. Base Set was the first English set and it was printed without one. So an unmarked card is only interesting if the number reads out of 64. Check the number before you check anything else.
Three columns per holo
Our Jungle kit ships a checklist with separate columns for 1st Edition, Unlimited and No Symbol, so the error run has somewhere to live instead of a note in the margin. It comes with 72 printable placeholders too.
Free download
The WOTC Variant Cheat Sheet
One printable page covering all six English sets of 1999 and 2000: the four Base Set print runs, holo counts, release dates, the checklist columns you actually need and the errors worth knowing. Keep it in the front of your binder. No email required.
Download A4 (PDF)Download US Letter (PDF)
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Related guides
- Base Set print runs: 1st Edition, Shadowless and Unlimited
- Fossil holo patterns and why the names are a mess
Sources and further reading
- Collexy: holofoil overview, WOTC era
- CardGrader: a collector's guide to the Jungle set
- r/pkmntcgcollections: complete Jungle no symbol errors
Made by Pokemom is an independent fan project. We are not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by Nintendo, Creatures Inc., GAME FREAK, The Pokemon Company or Wizards of the Coast. Card names and set names are used only to describe which cards a checklist covers.