A different kind of ghost to bring this week towards the end, for here is a Rolls Royce Silver Ghost. What you may not know is that originally that name was only given to one car, but when the press reported on it they thought the whole range of cars were called Silver Ghosts. And the name stuck, with the public at least, for Rolls Royce themselves preferred to call the range a more serviceable 40/50s, which referred to the horsepower. It was not until 1925, when a new range was introduced, that the Silver Ghosts were accepted and published by Rolls Royce. And for that range, tune in tomorrow!
Something else you may not know when you look at these cars and think of luxury, is that they were strongly made, and saw service in both World Wars. The first ever British Armoured cars, in 1914, were constructed off Rolls Royce Silver Ghost chassis, with added superstructure and armament. They started off in France but the terrain and the change to trench warfare saw them moved to the desert and to Gallipoli. Production lasted until 1917, when war moved with the times and it was felt air defence was more important - so Rolls Royce moved over to making engines for aeroplanes. However over seventy vehicles were still in good enough condition to serve in the Second World War.
Ching was a Jersey associate of British American Tobacco, but is usually classed as U.K. in most dealers catalogues. And if you were wondering why there is just one code, well this set was issued in 1960, after our original World Tobacco Issues Index had been published (in 1956).
Now for the question. Our latest World Tobacco Index has this set as either (A) a mauve backed set of 50 cards, or (B) a blue back part set which is rarer and is technically only a set of 25 cards, numbered 26-50. So why does this one look black ?