Card of the Day - 2021-11-30

D900-190 : USA/76 [tobacco : OS : USA] Duke "Great Americans" (1888) Bk/50 ish
D900-190 : USA/76 [tobacco : OS : USA] Duke "Great Americans" (1888) Bk/50 ish

Now lets start with the poser, for this is backlisted with 50 names. However, in Burdick, the card of Beecher is recorded as facing both ways, making 51 possibilities. He values them at .25 cents a card. All of the names of all of the Great Americans are shown on each card, some are familiar names, others stumped me.

It must be exceedingly rare, but according to our World Tobacco Issues Index, part 1, there is a different version of this issue; D900-190B - this is larger, and shows three subjects on a single card, 16 cards in all. That makes 48, I think, so which are missing – again, do let us know, and if you have one, do scan it for us so it may be added here. Now if I look in my Burdick catalogue, the larger version is under USA/112, and that says there are 17 cards, “3 of 76 to card”. (76 being the Burdick number for the small cards)

Mr. Burdick valued these at .40 cents each, the same value as “Bridges”, “Burlesque Scenes”, “Habitations of Man”, “Histories of Generals”, “Illustrated Songs”, “Lighthouses”, “Talk of the Diamond” and “Types of Vessels” (die-cut). If anyone would like to provide a current value for these we can have a comparison to see which has stood best the test of time.