Card of the Day - 2022-09-30

Today we have a real prize, thanks to one of our readers. For how could we have a week about non smoking without mentioning Johannes Peter "Honus" (or Hans) Wagner, who played more than twenty seasons almost entirely for the one Major League Baseball team, as shown here, The Pittsburgh Pirates.

There are other biographies of him, many, of them but we feel that in respect of the sport he so loved, that we can only send you to the National Baseball Hall of Fame 

Now Honus Wagner is most known for the fabled T/206 - which was withdrawn from the set after he protested that his appearance on a tobacco card would encourage people to smoke - but he did appear on other cards too, like this unusual circular, and trade, one.

This is for chewing gum, and the reason for the shape of this card is that it was inserted into a tin of the gum; that is often why the edges are peeled or creased, and the fronts sometimes creased - because some less than nimble fingers would try to roughly prise the card out without thinking they might slip with whatever unsuitable tool they were using. 

John Colgan was actually a chemist, not a confectioner, from Kentucky, but he was reputedly intrigued when he saw children chipping bits of tree sap off, putting it in their mouths, and chewing it. When he asked them why they did it, they said that it was enjoyable, and it passed the time. He thought that it sounded a reasonable idea, and best of all that if he chipped some off he could sell it, so he did, retailing it not as tree sap (for obvious reasons) but as "chewing chips" or as "chewing gum" and it was very popular, so much so that he was able to sell it in two varieties, Mint, which came in a green tin, and Violet, in a purple-red one. The product was originally sold in just his locality, but fame spread, and he actually exhibited as The Colgan Gum Company at the 1893 Chicago World`s Fair. This created much attention, including from a man called William Wrigley.

Now either Wrigley said I say Old Chap can we go into business and share the profits, or he bought some tins and figured out the secret for himself. Either way Wrigleys became the top chewing gum in America, and is still the largest maker worldwide, though it is now owned by Mars, Inc.  Now it is said that Colgan slowly faded away, but he issued our card in 1911-1912, and another set, known as the "Red Border Series" in 1912. 

You can read a lot more at PSA/Colgans - where there is also a list of the cards known so far, over three hundred. Plus check out SportsCollectorsDaily/Colgans to see more cards and some amazing packaging