On Wednesday, I was sent this scan, and the information that there was a second set, of which one card was inserted in each packet, along with seven cards of yesterday`s set.
It does not mention this anywhere on the card, only on the wax packet, in an inset box which reads "Extra in every pack Uniform or Insignia card..." And this packet also gives the correct name of the set, which is now altered on yesterday`s and today`a headers.
If you look closely at this card there are ways to spot it is two sets - but only if you have both. This "Insignia" set does not have the large head of the Mountie in the corner, instead there is a badge below which is "1873-1973", and in the opposite corner it says "One of a series of 30 Insignia Cards". Despite this, they have become pretty universally known as "Emblem Cards"
They are easy enough to spot from the front, as each card shows a different RCMP insignia, each on a red background, with yellow borders to top and bottom only.
However, the set actually begins with three portrait cards, the last of which we show as out card of the day for today, and these are :
- North West Mounted Police - 1874
- North West Mounted Police - 1898
- Royal Canadian Mounted Police - 1973
Now these are often wrongly thought to be part of yesterday`s set, by collectors who have not noticed that this is a set of only thirty cards, and believe that their first three cards tell the history of the uniform.
The packet does not really help this either; it neither says that the "uniform or insignia card" is from a second set, nor makes it clear that there are other cards in that second set that actually show the insignia on its own.
And it does not help that yesterday`s set is not in chronological order.