A "Weekly" paper is one which is printed only once, or perhaps twice a week. It tends to cover a local area, for example a town, and restricts itself to news of just those parts, bulking up the pages with advertising for houses and local services.
Today these are becoming things of the past, driven out by rising wages and costs of premises, ink, and paper - but some have successfully moved online. So if you have a local paper, do support it if you can.
You may be thinking that we took a bit of a liberty here as this publication was a children`s comic magazine, not a newspaper, which started out in 1954 as "Junior Express". It seems that it was a monthly then, for in the following year it was retitled "Junior Express Weekly", and then, in 1956, not so long before our cards were issued, the "Junior" was quietly dropped. However it was published by Beaverbrook Newspapers, and their best selling publication was the Daily Express.
This is an unusual printing of a reasonably easy to acquire set. It is described in our original British Trade Index part two as :
- THE WILD WEST. Sm. 66 x 36. Nd. (25) See D-438-3 ... EXP-2
A. Back in grey, overprinted in red "Get the full set..." [of 25 cards like this - to be given free with Express Weekly from July 1st. Place your order now]
B. Back in black. Issued in strips of 2 or 3.
We believe that selected single cards were issued in the run up to July the 1st as promotional material, and then from that issue the cards were inserted in strips of two or three which had to be cut down to make the individual cards.
The "D" code sends you off the the back of the book, where you will discover that this was a much more complex set than it looks, for the entry reads :
- D.438. THE WILD WEST. Three series, each Nd. 1/25
1. First 25 subjects - series title without serifs. (25)
Amalgamated Tobacco Corp. (Mills) - set A46-52 [Issued 1960]
Sweetule - Set SWA-24 [Issued 1960]
Anonymous, letterpress back - Set ZB9-57
2. Second 25 subjects - series title with heavy serifs. (25)
Barratt - Set BAR-110 [Issued 1963]
Sweetule - Set SWA-30 [Issued 1960]
3. Third 25 subjects (25)
Barker`s Bubble Gum - Set BAO-4 [Issued 1961]
Express Weekly - Set EXP-2 [Issued 1958]
The dates of issue are not in the original volume, they have been added by me, but they prove the issue of this set was all over the place, ours, the third set, actually being issued first of all in 1958.
In our updated British Trade Index, this set is listed as :
- THE WILD WEST. 1958. 66 x 36. Nd. (25) See HX-55.3 ... EXP-060
1. Black back. Issued in strips of 2 or 3.
2. Back in grey, overprinted in red "Get the full set..."
Now you will have noticed that this is a reversal of the order in the original British Trade Index, which is decidedly odd as we know that the overprinted ones were issued in order to make people buy the paper - and they also give the date that the set will begin to be issued. But I think the reason behind this is that the black backed cards were the proper set, and the overprinted ones purely for promotion, and so they have been relegated to second place.