Card of the Day - 2022-08-22

John Player "British Live Stock"
P644-048B : P72-18b : RB.17/33 [tobacco : UK] John Player "British Live Stock" extra large, brown back (May 1916) 21/25

This is a "South Down" sheep, celebrating the South Downs.

This set is a very confusing one, as it comes in four various formats, as described in H.44.  All appear in our original John Player reference book (RB.17) as RB.17/33 and in the various handbooks under H.344.

The earliest version, H.344A, is also coded P644-048a, or P72-19a, and it was issued in June 1915. This was of standard size and it had a brown back including Imperial Tobacco ITC wording.

The next printing, H344B, was issued in May 1916, once again it had a brown ITC back but it was in extra large size. This has the same codes as above but b suffixes (P644-048b, or P72-19b)

Once cards had reappeared after the end of the First World War, this set was reissued, twice.

The first of these, H344c, was issued in January 1923. The back was changed to a blue ITC back but again it was in extra large size. Because our World Tobacco Issues Indexes are split into sub sections by years, the codes on this fall into 1920-1940, so they are a bit different, namely P644-148 and P72-70.

The second of these, H344d, was issued in November 1924. The back was changed to a grey colour but there was no reference to Imperial Tobacco, because this version was issued overseas, in New Zealand, Malaya and Siam. It was also in a new size, medium. Being issued overseas the codes on this are again different, namely P644-618 and P72-189.