Notice the size of the numerals are much larger on the set of pieces on the bottom row. The size of each officer is also slight larger on the bottom row of pieces.

A few noticeable differences:

• The Captain's hat (#5) in the set in the bottom row is taller and not curved forward like the hat in the top row.

• The Lieutenant (#7) has a more pronounced mustache in the bottom set. Also, the style of his hat is a little different.

• The Scout's uniform (#9) is partially shown behind his neck in the set in the bottom row.

• The Flag has tiney dots around the edge in the bottom set.

When you look closely, every piece is slightly different in some way.

Both my mom and I unquestionably agree the bottom row
is the more desirable piece set to own.

The following comments concerning these two sets are from Dave O'Brien:

My observations about the two sets are clearly aligned with your own. The bottom set is much better on a number of levels. First, the color is much 'bluer', a royal blue finish, while the top set has a somewhat blue/gray look. The lacquer on the bottom set can be described as semi-gloss to glossy while the top set is dull.

I think the bottom set has been silk screened with the silver and gold paint, but the top set looks like it was stamped into the wood. If you look at the individual pieces in the top set at a strong angle (check out the Miner as an example) you can see the detail is actually below the surface of the piece, i.e., it looks like it was stamped. The disadvantage of this is loss of detail. A friend of mine who is in the business of stamping material says that's why the detail on the top set is slightly smaller than the bottom set. The stamps used need to be a certain percentage of size verses what's being stamped. This is especially true with a soft material like wood. The tradeoff is the detail gained by the stamping process verses its smaller size. I prefer the larger size of the print even if the smaller print in the top set is sharper and some would argue more detailed.

A disadvantage of the silk screening process seen in the bottom set is wear. It is very common in the silk screened sets to see a lot of wear in the printed area especially on those pieces where a lot of paint was used like the Miner, the Bomb, the Marshal, etc. The middle portions of the pieces tend to get worn off because the wood has a tendency to expand slightly in the middle, which raises the painted area. It is very dangerous to stack these pieces because this practice will increase the likelihood of rubbing. Because the top set has been stamped and the painted areas are actually below the surface of the rest of the piece, this rubbing problem is less likely. I've seen a number of top sets as compared to the bottom sets and it is extremely rare to see areas of rubbing damage.

Still, overall I like the bottom set better. The larger print, the color, and - if there is no rubbing damage - the beautiful finish makes this set superior to the eye. The stamping process would have been fantastic if they would have used slightly larger pieces, which would have allowed them to match the printed size of the lower set, and they should have continued to use the same color and lacquer finish. In my friend's opinion, he believes the lower set is older than the top set. In general, it's his experience that new products like this would be silk-screened first because it's cheaper than creating a set of stamps.

As a side comment, knowing the overall popularity of Stratego over many decades, maybe even close to a century of play, somebody - somewhere - has these original stamps used in 1961/1962 Can you imagine what they're worth to the public? That's only something that somebody in the business would have thought of... but you know somebody has them.

Very, very informative, Dave! Thanks for writing!

Regarding your last paragraph, I think it's also possible the
original stamps were either lost or destroyed.

Hopefully, your graphics card and monitor shows the
color difference that is quite apparent with the two sets
of pieces shown below.

I currently own six Stratego sets with wooden pieces.
Three of these sets have a color shading (for the red pieces)
similar to the pieces shown on the left. The red is a deep maroon color.

The other three sets are similar to the pieces shown on the right.
The red is a bright and vibrant red color.