So, you are most probably asking, why a fish? Well if you looked up in the sky on seeing this fish last night you would have seen what is called the sturgeon moon, just one of the names for the August moon. This moon rose to its highest peak of brightness last night, but it remains up there for a few days yet, slowly growing dimmer. This time is was a so called super moon, which just means that it is closest to our earth at this point in its orbit, and so it looks bigger and brighter than usual.
The sturgeon connotation comes from the largest fish in North America, with a maximum length of six feet and a gross weight of two hundred pounds. And the largest number of those largest fish are found in their Great Lakes, at this time of year. They are really incredible fish, and I am gratified that they have been honoured with a moon all their own. In addition the males live for over fifty years and the females for three times that. They have also been around long enough to be found as fossils, with ancestry dating back to the Jurassic Era.
Their other claim to fame is that in 1324 the sturgeon was legally declared, by King Edward II, to belong to the British Monarchy. This was a rather astute move, because the fish provides most of the caviar consumed worldwide. And this law has never been changed, so if you catch a sturgeon in British waters it must be handed over to the King. By the way, it also applies, even more curiously, to whales and dolphins.
Lets start our card chat with our original John Player reference book RB.17, published in 1950. That describes this set as
95. FISHES OF THE WORLD. Small cards. Fronts in colour. Backs in red-brown with descriptive text. Unnumbered series of 50. Home issue, February 1903.
[there then follows a list of all the cards using the titles from the backs, so the fronts and backs obviously vary]
Similar series issued by Churchman and Imperial Tobacco Co. of Canada.
Our original World Tobacco Issues Index shortens this, to just "Sm. Unnd. (50)" - though it does add cross references telling the reader to "See RB.17/95 and H.66". And the updated version says much the same, simply omitting the reference to RB.17 and only closing with "See H.66".