Welcome to another week, and a Harvest moon, which some readers may have seen on Tuesday night, but most of you, like me, were probably thwarted by cloud. Still at least it was dry.
Now, some apologies, as last week I was premature with my delight at finding and being able to restore an earlier newsletter that I thought lost to the ether. However I did not do so well as I had I hoped I would, mainly because what I thought to be a complete set of Cards of the Day actually belonged to the newsletter that followed it. But I am sorting this out, slowly - very slowly because it has to fit in with everything else that I need to do. However one day it will be restored, and then I may even start on another.
A & BC Chewing Gum [trade : confectionery : UK] "Footballers" - crinkle cut (1973) 20/32 - AAB-400-3.a/b / ABF-51-2.b
Today, in 1944, saw the birth of Rodney William Marsh. He was actually born in Hatfield, where his family were staying purely until he was born, for their own house was in the East End of London, one of the areas which, during the Second World War, was perpetually under threat of air raids and bombs, and no place for an impending birth.
His footballing career started with West Ham United, as a junior, but his professional debut came with Fulham, in 1963. He left there in 1966, and moved to Queens Park Rangers, for the sum of £15,000 - which is put firmly into perspective by the fact that nine years late, in 1972, he joined Manchester City, which is the team on our card, for £200,000, though that was a record at the time.
Somehow he came to the attention of an American talent scout, and was asked if he would like to move to Florida. Of course he said yes, and that is how he came to take the field for the Tampa Bay Rowdies. He really enjoyed the life and the atmosphere over there, and he came back later to coach them. In fact he, and his son, spend a lot of time there to this day, as he runs a property development company.
After that he went on a tour, talking about football and his time on the field. He had always been unafraid to voice his opinions, and some of his team changes had come about more because of things he had said than his performance on the field. The tour teamed him with George Best so it would have been well worth going to see, and it also led to his appearance on television, after which he was signed up by Sky. However in 2005 he was sacked, and after that he kind of went out on his own, appearing on lots of shows, especially those from the "celebrity reality" stable, and he freely admitted he did them for the fun.
This is a strange set, which owes a lot to an earlier set of thirty-six English cards and a set of fifteen Scottish ones, which were issued in 1969, which also had mock autographs and odd shaped edges, but not the same shaped edges, so it is easy to tell them apart. .
We do not know why they only issued fifteen cards for Scotland, but we do know that by the time these cards were issued the set included a mixture of both English and Scottish footballers, which almost certainly made life and printing easier.
We also suspect that these were done by a different printer, or perhaps a cheaper process, as they are not so well done, and they were also unvarnished, which made them look rather dull. And you can also find a lot of them with what is said to be the photos printed out of square, though if you turn them over the inscription is also out of square, and this points to them being cut wrongly, not printed wrongly. It is also apparent that our cards were not printed on unused stock, as has been suggested, especially as you can find them with larger, straighter borders - which many collectors believe came from printer`s proofs, cut down.
You can see all the cards at Nigel`s Web Space/ABC.cc.73
This set, despite its age, was not added to our reference books until our British Trade Index part three, published in 1986, and even then it is hard to find without a code, as it is amongst other sets. Our set is described as :
- Football Series - 1973/4 (A) ... ABF-51
2. Players. Black halftones with caption in blue script writing. Back per Fig,ABF-51.2, inscribed "No.... in a set of 32". Nd. (32). Issued with set ABF-51.1.1 (2). Two sizes :
(a) 81 x 55, normal straight borders
(b) 74 x 48, serrated borders
I have to say that this is the first time I had ever heard this set linked to another, which is expanded on in our updated British Trade Index, where the listing reads ;
- Footballers (A) 1973/4. B&W. Nd. (32). Autographed photos. Backs "No. ... in a set of 32", in two sizes (a) 81 x 55, normal straight border (b) 74 x 48, serrated borders. Issued with Footballers, English issue, 1972/3, second series, see AAB-395.1.b ... AAB-400
Topps [trade/commercial : cards : O/S - USA] "X-MEN 'The Movie" - Base Set (2000) 6/72
I would have much preferred to have a card of today`s birthday boy, Hugh Jackman, from "The Prestige" or "The Greatest Showman", and I really tried hard to find out whether he had been an extra in "Priscilla Queen of the Desert" - but none of these were fruitful, so I guess his performance as an X-Man will have to do.
In case you are not a fan, "X-Men" are superheroes who first appeared in Marvel comic books. The film rights were bought by Fox in 1994 for $2.6 and this resulted in a trilogy of films, "X-Men" in the year 2000, which is our film, then "X2" in 2003, and "X-Men - The Last Stand" in 2006. Then there were spin offs, three of which involved the Hugh Jackman character. James Howlett. also known as "Logan" or as "Wolverine", a mutant with amazing senses, the ability to regenerate his metal-reinforced skeleton, and three retractable claws on each hand.
As for Hugh Michael Jackman. he was born today in Sydney, New South Wales, in 1968 though his parents were English, and had emigrated through one of the schemes that were announced just after the end of the First World War in order to attract more people to move to Australia. He had just left theatre school, in 1995, when he was offered a job on a television series; where he also met his wife. The series was but a ten parter, but it led to work on many of the serials which were popular at that time, and almost certainly this was how he started up the ladder to fame.
However this card shows him in his first major film role - and it also his "Rookie" Card - but it could have all been very different, as originally it was intended that Russell Crowe was to play Wolverine, but he turned it down - and it was he who suggested Hugh Jackman take it over.
This is what is known as a character card, and they usually come first in the order, introducing all the people you will meet in the set and the film. This is especially important in the case of a new film or series, but it often continues through all series. Likewise at the end of many sets you get a section showing the filming.
The most interesting card from this set is a promotional one, which was given away in cinemas screening "Titan AE", an animated sci fi feature which it was thought would also appeal to fans of the Marvel characters.
This is a secondary promotional card to the four black and white fronted ones which were the actual promos for the set, and which, when laid together face down made a sectional picture into a whole one.
There was also another promo, with a yellow back, produced by Marvel themselves in order to advertise that you could get their comics delivered to your home on subscription.
Of course, this being Topps, there were special inserts, autographs (including Hugh Jackman), chromium cards, and foils, plus cards with sections of costume and memorabilia inside, visible through a cut out section of the card.
Liebig [trade : meat extract : O/S - South America] "Beruhmte Kolossalstatuen" (19?) Un/6 - F.0846 : S.0847
Today in 54 A.D., the man we know as Nero became a Roman Emperor, on the death of his grand-uncle Claudius, who had adopted him.
However we do think there was a rather distasteful twist to this tale, as Nero`s mother, and Claudius` fourth wife, Agrippina the Younger, is the prime suspect in that death, by poisoning - and with a fairly valid reason, for Claudius had a son all his own, Britannicus, with his third wife, who was a more legitimate heir. Then there is another twist, for in 55 A.D. Britannicus, aged just thirteen, was murdered, also with poison, and almost certainly by Nero, to prevent any claims to his throne for ever more.
Nero had three names, his birth name, Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus, and his official name, Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus, shortened, unsurprisingly, to Nero.
He was a good emperor in many ways, a brilliant diplomat, a keen trader, and fond of all forms of culture and sports - but he fought many wars, and could be cruel. And there were lots of rumours of underhanded behaviour, even one that he arranged, or even started, the Great Fire of Rome in July 64 in order to clear the ground for a new mansion, at which there would be a giant statue of himself. And he did build a palace on some of the land which had been cleared by that fire.
The one thing we are fairly certain of is that he did not "fiddle whilst Rome burned", not just because the violin shaped fiddle was first made in the sixteenth century, and at his time he would have played its predecessor, the lyre. For we also know that when he heard the news of the fire, for he was not in Rome at the time, he raced back, and covered the costs of the clearance from his own pocket. In addition, he distributed food for the homeless and also allowed some of them to stay in his empty palaces.
After the fire things seemed to start to go bad for Nero, he made several enemies, and he lost wars that he ought to have won. And on the 9th of June 68, the anniversary of the death of his first wife, he killed himself.
But wait. If we go back a paragraph or two, remember that giant statue - well here it is on our card. It was between ninety eight and a hundred and twenty one feet tall and it stood at the palace he built on the ruins of Rome, the Domus Aurea, which was indeed huge, covering grounds from the Palatine Hill to the Esquiline Hill.
After his death it was slightly modified to make it less like Nero and more like the sun god Sol, hence the rays on the head of the statue, which you can see on our card. It was also renamed to Colossus Solis, losing its one remaining link with Nero, and it was moved, by Emperor Hadrian, and twenty-four elephants, to the Flavian Amphitheatre, which we know today as the Colosseum, after that statue. Then we do not know what happened to it, though it is suspected that it was destroyed during the Sack of Rome, by the Visigoths, in 410 A.D.
Our set was a popular one, and is variously known as "Beruhmte Kolossalstatuen" (in Germany), "Colosses Celebres" (in France). In fact we featured the card of the Statue of Liberty, in the French version, in a previous newsletter, that for the 4th of May, 2024, as the diary card for Tuesday the 7th of May - and that is great as we get to change this list so that the French names are via that link and the German names are here!
Therefore the German cards show the following statues :
- Der Koloss des Nero - [The Colossus of Nero in Rome]
- Der Coloss von Rhodos (Apollo) - [The Colossus of Rhodes
- Die Freiheit, die Welt erleuchtend - [The Statue of Liberty in New York]
- Die Grosse Sphinx - [The Great Sphinx at Giza]
- Die Rolandsaule von Halberstadt - [The Statue of Roland at Halberstadt]
- Zeus-Statue in Olympia - [The Statue of Zeus at Olympia]
Gum, Inc. [trade : gum : O/S - Philadelphia, USA] "Play Ball" (1940) 174/240
Today in 1908 the Chicago Cubs beat the Detroit Tigers 2-0 to win the World Series - but they would not regain their title until 2026, a hundred and eight years after!
Our man, John Joseph "Johnny" Evers was pivotal to that game. He had been born on July the 21st, 1881, in New York, and nobody thought he would ever be able to play baseball for he was relatively small of stature and baseball was a game which required strength and stamina. However, Johnny Evers proved them all wrong, because his heart and his spirit was much larger than anyone thought his body could contain. You can read more about him at EBSCO/JJEvers
This set is sought after for many reasons, and sadly often split in order to make more money from certain cards. The main draws are the cards of Joe DiMaggio, Ted Williams and Honus Wagner, but the latter is not depicted as a player, but as his current job, the coach of the Pittsburgh Pirates. Some of the cards also advertise another Gum Inc. set, "Superman", which was released in the same year as this set, and fans of the Man of Steel have started to want these cards too.
Strangely, Gum Inc was started by Jacob Warren Bowman, who was a salesman for other people`s gum when he realised that he should be making and selling his own. This thought led to his starting his company in 1927, and by 1929 his product "Blony" bubble gum was the top selling gum across America, maybe because it blew great bubbles, but maybe because it was the largest piece of gum at the lowest price, just one cent a piece. Or maybe because it was not grey, as most gum was, but pink.
Despite the success of the gum there were shauries with partners, one of whom was supplying the materials and the colour, and who owned half the company stock. Then, in 1932, he had another spat with the same person, and that grumbled on until 1936, resulting in Bowman leaving, or being fired, reports vary. Then it all went to court, and he won, even being reinstated as the Company head, though that did not end so well as his second wife, from whom he had recently parted, sued him to claim some of his earnings. I have not been able to find out if this claim was upheld.
Their first baseball cards came along in 1939, called "Play Ball" but with less artwork at the base of the front than our set, just a picture in a plain white border, and not so square. The series consisted of a hundred and sixty one cards. There was another "Play Ball" in 1941 too, and that was in colour, but then production was halted by America`s entry into the Second World War.
W.D. & H.O. Wills - `Scissors` brand [tobacco : O/S - India] "Sporting Girls" (April 1913) -
I cannot lie, I stole the subject I had written about here for our theme of the week, but then struggled to find anything else - until I discovered that today, in 1520, Henry VIII ordered bowling lanes for Whitehall.
Now you may not think that the corpulent King was capable, but apparently he was both keen and skilled, not just at bowls but at jousting, and at tennis. And his palaces were fitted out so that he had ample opportunity to train and play. In fact Whitehall would eventually have four indoor tennis courts, a jousting yard, and a bowling area, whilst he also had facilities to bowl at Hampton Court, and his favourite, Nonsuch Palace.
However he would not have approved of our card, for he objected so strongly to the lower classes playing the game that he banned them from playing it, giving the right to play entirely to to the rich. What he would have thought of a lady player is thankfully not recorded.
Though, like everything, there are two sides to this story, for what he actually did was make his subjects learn archery instead, and if you think about that, in doing so, he was ensuring that they were ready for war, to fire arrows at the enemy, instead of rolling bowls at them across a lawn and hoping they tripped and fell.
He was not the first King of England to ban the sport either. In 1477 King Edward IV had ruled that any peasant found playing it would be imprisoned for three years, and fined £10.
In fact this was a more stringent punishment than Henry VIII laid down, for he made no mention of imprisonment, only of a fine, of just six shillings and eightpence. However, and this is how we know that he was only interested in stopping its pursuit amongst the lower classes, you could play on without restriction so long as you owned property valued at more than a hundred pounds.
Of course bowling as a pastime was much older than this. There is proof, by way of paintings inside tombs, that both the Egyptians and the Romans played, using leather hides stuffed out with cereals and tied up with string.
One of the earliest forms of the game involved someone placing two small cones at each end and the two players endeavouring to get as close as they could to the other`s cone without knocking it down. The other involved rolling a bowl at a formation of nine cones, trying to knock them all down, especially the larger one in the very middle, within so many throws. And this game survives to this day, as "nine pins", or as "king pin", though it is now more usually seen in a bowling alley than on a lawn.
Now I am sure I have used this set before but I cannot find it, it may have been much earlier than I thought. It certainly did not pop up when I added the card, which sometimes happens and sends me back to the drawing board. Though it does not matter if I do, for this set was issued in two formats, ably described in our original Wills reference book part four, as :
- 331. 30. SPORTING GIRLS (adopted title). Size 63 x 36 m/m. Unnumbered. Fronts Per Fig.91, [archery] lithographed in colour, no captions. Export issue between 1900-10
A. "Scissors" issue. Backs in red with illustration of open "Scissors" packet. No other letterpress.
B. General Overseas issue. Plain backs, anonymous issue.
- Archery
- Badminton
- Billiards (horizontal)
- Bowls
- Cards
- Coaching (two figures, side by side)
- Croquet
- Cycling
- Dancing
- Fishing
- Flying
- Golf
- Hockey
- Horse Racing (in grandstand)
- hunting
- Ice Skating
- Motoring
- Mountaineering
- Punting
- Quoits
- Roller Skating
- Rowing
- Shooting
- Skiing
- Swimming (diving)
- Sleighing (two figures)
- Tandem Driving (two figures, back to back, horizontal)
- Tennis
- Tobogganning (two figures)
- Yachting
In the book these are numbered, but as the cards are neither numbered nor titled that makes life very difficult. For one thing, it is up to the viewer of the card what they call that sport, so the two cards of "Coaching" and "Tandem Driving" are often called "Carriage Driving" (single, and then pair), and therefore fit in another order to this list. Also the "Swimming" card is almost always called "Diving" for that is what it shows. And in America the word "Quoits" is unheard of, they call it "Tossing the Ring". Hence I have removed the numbers above and added dots.
One other thing is that we do have a date for the printing of this set, so we know it was done in Great Britain and the cards were shipped across. That date appeared in the Wills` "Works" Magazine, which is why we have it here today.
Oddly though this set seems to have had a very limited run, for in June 1913, just the next month, along came "Army Boxers" to replace it inside of the `Scissors` packets. But the set before ours was ""Governors General of India", and that had been in circulation since December 1912, which is some seven months.
Our World Tobacco Issues Index lists one version of this set under Wills section 4.G - for "Export issues quoting certain brands - `Scissors` ". And the heading tells us that the cards were "Issued in India and in areas where British Garrisons were stationed". The set is described as simply :
- SPORTING GIRLS (A). Sm. 63 x 36. Unnd. (30). See X21/200-331.A ... W62-369
As for the other, anonymous version, that is shunted to the back of the book, where it appears under the anonymous, plain backed, issues - listed as :
- SPORTING GIRLS (A). Sm. 63 x 36. Unnd. (30). See X21/200-331.B. Issued in India through B.A.T. ... ZH2-33
That "X" reference sends us to the handbook, and an entry reading :
- X21/200-331. SPORTING GIRLS. The 30 subjects in this series are illustrated at Fig. X21/200-331 in the same order as under W/331.
A. Wills` `Scissors`
B. Anonymous issues with plain back
I cannot get anything off the picture which is light and small, but the way the block is laid out makes me certain it appears in a magazine, it is just tracking that down. Once I do, it will be larger and better quality, and I will add it here.
Our updated World Tobacco Issues indexes change the main text only very slightly, for the `Scissors` version reads :
- SPORTING GIRLS (A). Sm. 63 x 36. Unnd. (30). See RB.21/200-331.A ... W675-519
and the anonymous version :
- SPORTING GIRLS (A). Sm. 63 x 36. Unnd. (30). See RB.21/200-331.B. Issued in India through B.A.T. ... ZH02-780
As for the RB.21 code, I cannot find it in my copy, but the index does give us another point of issue for the plain backed version, and that was Malta.
Kwatta [trade : coffee : O/S - Belgium] "Film Stars" (1940s)
Today, a hundred years ago, saw the birth, in London, of this young lady, Angela Brigid Lansbury, who would remain on stage, screen, and television for most of the rest of her life, including twelve years on "Murder She Wrote", from 1984 to 1996, in which she appeared in every episode, as Jessica Fletcher, sleuth of Cabot Cove.
We are not sure in which part of London she was actually born, it varies between Poplar and Regents Park. Her mother was an Irish actress, and her father a politician, and some sources say that Regents Park was added to appease his political career, but this is definitely untrue for he was not only a member of the Communist Party of Great Britain, but also a former mayor of Poplar.
He died when she was nine, and her mother moved in with a military man, who took on all three of her children and had one already of his own. Then, when the Second World War broke out the whole lot of them moved to America. She had already been working on the stage, and enjoying it, and it appears that she got accepted to study acting in New York, which led to Hollywood.
That seems to put the often quoted date of this card, 1940, in jeopardy a bit, unless it was a long run, as her first role was "Gaslight" in 1944. And it must be said that she did not enjoy her time as simply being a pretty face, she wanted more. One thing she did like very much was her parts in musicals, she enjoyed the brightness and fun, and the people on the set, and in 1966 she jumped at the chance to play "Mame" on Broadway. The critics and audiences loved her too, and she won a Tony Award for her portrayal. She continued to act on stage and screen throughout the nineteen seventies and eighties, only lessening this, through necessity, when she became involved with "Murder She Wrote" in 1984, her first television airing. She said that she thought it would not last too long, and she did not realise how much of each episode would include her. It was a fun production though, made by a company, which was co-owned by her and her second husband, and, for which she was executive producer over the last four seasons.
Even to the end of her life she still preferred to be involved with films of warmth and humour, and she supplied the voices for several Disney productions. And she Lansbury died in her sleep in Los Angeles on October 11, 2022, at the age of ninety-six
PANINI [trade/commercial : O/S : Italy] "Golden Age Playing Cards" (2013) ten of clubs/53
Robert Craig "Evel" Knievel was born today in 1938, in Butte, Montana. His parents divorced soon after the birth of his brother, the following year, and the two boys were taken in his father`s father, who lived in the same town.
They seem to have had a good childhood, and were frequently taken out to events. One of these was a daredevil show, "Hell Drivers", and, reportedly, the young Robert declared that was what he would do when he grew up.
Unfortunately when he left school he could only find work in a copper mine, and he lost that job through causing a massive power cut, it is (sadly) not specified how. Freed from having a normal job, he decided to tour around with rodeos and any events that would allow him to act the stuntman. During this time he broke his collarbone and shoulder in a motocross accident.
A spell in the army seemed to settle him, at least he came out and got married, but he was still hungry for adventure. In the next few years he had started a hockey team, sold insurance, and opened a motorcycle dealership. None of these lasted very long, but having the dealership led him to a job repairing bikes, with enough spare time that he could stunt them on the side. It also led to his first ever "show", which he did all on his own; by all reports it was hardly grand, he started with a few wheelies, riding the bike on the back wheel alone, and then jumped it over a box of rattlesnakes and a pair of lions. I am not sure where he got the lions. However this is important because it was the starting point for the jumps which would get ever more elaborate as his career developed. He also knew it was not great, but it was the germ of something better.
At first he thought the way forward was to have more riders making a longer show, so he approached a sponsor, a bike distributor. They agreed to give him some bikes, but on one condition, that he changed his name to "Evil" Knievel. At first he agreed, but he was uncomfortable with the connotations, so he went back and argued that which a letter change you would have the same sound. And so "Evel" Knievel was born.
His first event was at the National Date Festival on January the third, 1966, jumping over two trucks of dates, by which I mean the fruit. His second was cancelled, because it was heavy rain. His third almost killed him, he tried to jump over another motorcycle, moving and fast, and failed, ending up flying fifteen feet into the air, and having to spend some time in hospital. Crucially, when released, the first thing he did was repeat the stunt, this time successfully. And it was that, more than any other, which cemented his fame.
He wanted to continue with the long jump, but only, for now, over static objects. In March 1967 he cleared fifteen cars. Trucks were harder, and taller, and he frequently came up short, with injuries - however if he did not complete the jump, he would always return and do it again, as soon as he was able. This did not always go so well, and in July and August of that year he failed again at the second attempt - the first resulting in concussion and the second in breaking his wrist, knee, and several ribs. The same year, perhaps because he was out of action with nothing to do but dream up crazy things, he decided to jump the fountains at Caesar`s Palace in Las Vegas, on New Year`s Eve.
Somehow he managed to take this idea and make it the truth, though he spent most of his own money to do so. In hindsight, everything was wrong, it was the furthest he had ever jumped, at a hundred and forty four feet, and he had never jumped over water. And he crashed, spectacularly, landing just off the safety ramp and falling to the pavement. Again he was hospitalised, with massive injuries, and there were moments where he almost did not come through. However, his jump was hot news, and everyone was talking about him. And so when he did come round, he started planning the next one.
Just five months after, and newly out of hospital, he was sitting on his bike in Arizona, preparing to jump fifteen cars. Again this did not go well, and he broke his right leg and foot. But even whilst he was in hospital, again, he was planning something more - to jump the Grand Canyon. However he repeatedly came up against barriers from the government, and by 1971 he was forced to change his plan, and move to the Snake River Canyon in Idaho, increasing the spectacle by using a rocket-powered machine. This was also unsuccessful, though he did actually almost land it on the other side, it was only the wind which sent it back into the canyon, though luckily the craft did not land in the water.
Again he kept going, though he did briefly announce his retirement in London after crashing over thirteen single decker buses at Wembley Stadium. His last show was actually in 1981, in Florida, as part of his son`s motorcycle show.
In the late 1990s, he underwent a liver transplant, due to the fact that in one of his hospitalisations he had contracted Hepatitis C from infected blood. However this was a success, and he lived until November the thirtieth, 2007, though his last few years were plagued with diabetes and pulmonary fibrosis.
The best set of cards to collect if you are a fan is the Topps set, issued in 1974. They were presumably thought of because in 1971 there had been a feature film about Evel Knievel, but starring George Hamilton. This was followed by "Viva Knievel", which did star the man himself, but not until 1977. Or they may have been issued as promotion for the Snake River jump, because they show the rocket-powered vehicle, but the text on card 26 says it "...is destined for the other side of Snake River". Each packet contained six cards and a sticker, but the sticker was not really connected, it was actually the same ones which had been distributed inside packets of Topps` 1970 issue "Way Out Wheels", twenty-two cards each having small car related stickers to peel out of it. There are none relating to bikes, or even to Evel Knievel, who is not mentioned anywhere on them. Some collectors say that they were added to broaden the set`s appeal, whilst others say they were added because the set, of just sixty cards, was relatively small.
Our card is a playing card, but it was issued by Panini as part of the "Golden Age" 2013 set, and you can see a checklist at the Trading Card Database/GA13, which proves it is rather a mish-mash, containing everything from Harry Houdini to the Titanic, and lots of sport. However it is a really great shot of our man, in his Elvis inspired jumpsuit, and I could not track down anyone who had the Topps set so I could show one of those.
This week's Cards of the Day...
refer to an event which started yesterday, is actually National Newspaper Week, or at at least it is in America. It seems to celebrate the fact that on September 25, 1690, the first ever paper called "Publick Occurrences Both Forreign and Domestick", was published in Boston.
A spot of research, however, finds that about 59 B.C. Romans were able to keep up with their news with a hand written sheet which was very grandly called the "Acta Diurna" - though it actually translates to Daily Goings-On.
As for the first printed paper, that was "The Relation", a weekly, printed by Johann Carolus of Strasbourg, and starting in 1605.
Newspapers in Great Britain they were a bit slower - and started with the "Oxford Gazette", first issued in 1665 - but we know that by the 1720s there were many such papers, twenty-four in all, including the first one in London, "The Daily Courant", which began on March the 11th, 1702.
Whilst the honour of being the oldest newspaper still in print today goes to "Post- och Inrikes Tidningar", first printed in 1645, and still the official government gazette of Sweden. It did switch to online-only in 2007, but, rather thrillingly, is still available in a printed version, four copies of each being lodged with the Lund University library, the National Library of Sweden, and the Swedish Companies Registration Office.
So our clue cards were :
Saturday, 4th October 2025
Here we have the most popular sort of newspaper, a "daily". Now you may think this means it is issued every day, but the dictionaries will tell you that legally it is a newspaper that is published every day of the week, except Sunday.
The most popular "daily" is actually not published on Saturday or Sunday, and that is "The Metro", available from racks, free of charge, at London stations, though it goes right to the end of the line and you can get it out at Chesham station, so presumably at Amersham too. The Metro is published by DMG, who also publish "The Daily Mail", but it aims to not be tied to left or to right, just to present the news in an unbiased form, and I have to say perhaps that is why it is so popular.
Our team for today, Stenhousemuir, seems to have been allied to the Stenhousemuir Thistle Cricket Club, which began in 1881. It is possible that, like most teams, the football was a summer means of keeping fit and it was not considered a proper football team until 1883.
Though we have to say that there are some club historians who firmly believe that the team allied to the cricket club was not the same one, and that there were two teams, a Stenhousemuir Thistle and a separate Stenhousemuir team for men who were not part of the cricket club.
We know that Stenhousemuir (without the Thistle) was accepted into the Scottish Football Association in August 1883, and played in the Scottish Cup, until 1885, when they were removed from the Association because they had failed to pay their annual subscription. But that was all sorted out.
You can read more of their story at HistoricalKits.co.uk/Stenhousemuir
Scottish Daily Express appears as an issuer for the first time in our original British Trade Index, and there is an entry for "Scottish Football Teams 1956-7", but our set is not there; it only covers cards on which the reverses were headed "Pools Fans!" or "Scottish Daily Express - 1, 2 or X?". Though it does also include cards for the following season, 1957-58.
And I have to say I am rather confused by the listing in part four of our original British Trade Index, which tells us to strike all that out and split them into just two groups, namely :
- SCX-1 (Scottish Football Teams)
1. "Season 1956-7". 19 now known :
A. Front "Scottish Daily Express". 10 known. Two backs -
Aberdeen
Celtic
Dunfermline Athletic
East Fife
Falkirk
Partick Thistle
Rangers
St. Johnstone
St. Mirren
Third Lanark
B. Front "Presented by Scottish Daily Express". All 19 known - two versions of Partick Thistle (different players). Nine backs
Aberdeen
Alloa Athletic
Ayr United
Brechin City
Celtic
Dundee
Dunfermline Athletic
East Fife
East Stirlingshire
Falkirk
Kilmarnock
Partick Thistle (a)
Partick Thistle (b)
Raith Rovers
Rangers
St. Johnstone
St. Mirren
Stenhousemuir
Stirling Albion
Third Lanark
However, I have had a bit of help since then.
I also have a note of all the backs, some of which are listed in their entirety and others of which are in a shorter form.
The two backs on the first group, SCX-1.1.A, are
- "Pools Fans! For that £75,000 you must follow the top ten in the Scottish Daily Express"
- "Scottish Daily Express. 1, 2, or X? The Answer is Wednesday's Pools Guide. Make sure of your copy".
The nine backs on the second group, SCX-1.1.B are not all identified, but they definitely include :
- Greatest Ever Motor Show Contest. A Car A Day and a bonus car must be won. Enter now. Full details in the Scottish Daily Express [in horizontal format - and the cars are Hillman Minx, Morris Isis, Sunbeam Rapier, Standard Vanguard, Austin Healey, Ford Consul, Humber Hawk, Wolseley 15/50, Triumph T.R.3, and M.G.A. Coupe]
- Reprinted from the Scottish Daily Express, 29th August 1956. Keith Miller Declares! [in horizontal format, and it is way too long to transcribe!]
- "Great New series. "What I think of my old team". Four famous ex-players will give their opinion in Monday`s Scottish Daily Express".
- "Scottish Daily Express. Schoolboy Footballers. Look Out For Jock Govan's New Feature Schoolboys on parade. Every Tuesday." [John "Jock" Govan being a Scottish footballer from Larkhall, in Lanarkshire, who played for Hibernian, and later Ayr United, and must have had a column even later than that about schoolboy football. He died in February 1999, aged seventy-six.]
We think the others, still to be completely written in full, are :
- Must Be Won £4,000 House Plus….
- New Film Contest, £2,0000 Must Be Won…
- Safer Motoring Contest, £5,000 Must Be Won…
- Sports Fans! World Athletics Stars… Ibrox Stadium… Saturday, 15th Sept….
- Win a Country Cottage and a Car…..
By the time our four original Trade Indexes were combined into a single updated volume in 2006, the listing had changed a lot, but still left additional questions. It reads :
- SCOTTISH FOOTBALL TEAMS (A). 140 x 90. Black. Multi-backed, see HS-24. ... SCO-250
1. "Scottish Daily Express" at top. Season 1956-7. Nd. (19). Two different printings of the heading known.
2. "Presented by Scottish Daily Express" at top. Season 1956-7. Unnd. (20). See HS-24.1. Four different printings of the heading known.
3. "Presented by Scottish Daily Express" at top. Season 1957-8. Unnd (9). See HS-24-2. Two different printings of the heading known.
4. "Scottish Daily Express Super Sports Postcards". 1956. Nd. (12?) No.12 is double sided.
5. "Hearts F.C. - Scottish Cup Winners - Hampden Park April 1956. Single card.
The differences in the heading are easy enough to spot, one having thick bold capital letters with serifs, and the other having thinner and italicised letters without serifs. However the entry for our set says that there are four differences, so I will have to hunt those out.
Sunday, 5th October 2025
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.
Monday, 6th October 2025
Here is the "Sunday" paper, usually a compilation of the most important news of the week, plus follow ups, and often containing a glossy magazine. A lot of them are related to weekly papers, and use the same name, but with "Sunday" tacked on in front.
The Sunday Mail was actually founded in Glasgow in 1919, but, coincidentally, bought out by Gomer Berry, who we spoke of with our Card of the Day for the 25th of September 2021 - which actually features in our newly (but still partially) restored newsletter for the 3rd of October 2021. In fact, Mr. Berry bought three papers at the same time, the Sunday Mail, the Daily Record and the Glasgow Evening News - and it cost him a million pounds. And he kept them right until 1955, when they were sold to the Mirror Group. I cannot find out what they paid for them.
This set appears in our original British Trade Index, but not until part four. They are part of a larger group, including the black and white cards we featured as our Card of the Day for the 18th of October 2025. However that list includes both the black and white and the colour cards, so it is repeated here for ease.
The Sunday MAIL
Scottish Sunday newspaper. Cards issued about 1950.
- Scottish Footballers (A). 142 x 90. Two styles, captions as facsimile signatures. Club names do not appear on the cards but are added in parentheses in the listings ... SURR-1
1. Inscribed in panel at base "Sunday Mail Junior Sports Club", see Fig.SURR-1.1. 40 known
A. Picture in black and white, words "Copyright" and "Photograph" in capitals
B. Picture in colour, words "Copyright" and "Photograph" in upper and lower case letters
1. B. - George Aitken (Third Lanark)
2. A. - Archie Baird (Aberdeen)
3. B. - Bobbie Brown (Rangers)
4. A. B. - Jim Cowan (Greenock Morton)
5. A. B. - Sammy Cox (Rangers)
6. A. - Peter Craigmyle (Referee)
7.. A. - Johnny Deakin (St Mirren)
8. A. - Jimmy Duncanson (Rangers)
9. B. - Bobby Evans (Celtic)
10. A. - Torry Gillick (Rangers)
11 .A - John Govan (Hibernian)
12. A. - Billy Honliston (Queen of the South)
13. A - Wilson Humphries (Motherwell)
14. A - Jimmy Inglis (Falkirk)
15. B. - R. Johnstone (Hibernian)
16. A. - Jacky Law (Queen of the South)
17. A. - David Letham (Queens Park)
18. A. - Alex Linwood (Clyde) - Fig. SURR-1.1
19. A. - Hugh Long (Clyde)
20. A. B. - Ian McCall (Rangers)
21. A. - Ian McMillan (Airdrieonians)
22. A. - John McPhail (Celtic)
23. A. - Jimmy Mallan (Celtic)
24. B. - Jas Mason (Third Lanark) - as No.9 in (2)
25. A. - Willie Paton (Rangers)
26. A. - Tommy Pearson (Aberdeen)
27. A. - W. Penman (Raith Rovers)
28. A. B. - Willie Redpath (Motherwell)
29. A. - Laurie Reilly (Hibernian) - different picture to below
B. - Laurie Reilly (Hibernian) - different picture to above
30. A. - Archie Shaw (Motherwell)
31. A. - Davie Shaw (Hibernian)V
32 B. - Gordon Smith (Hibernian) - as No.11 in (2)
33. A. - Billy Steel (Greenock Morton)
B. - Billy Steel (Dundee)
34. A. B. - Willie Thornton (Rangers)
35. A. - Charlie Tully (Celtic) - different picture to below
B. - Charlie Tully (Celtic)- different picture to above
36. B. - Eddie Turnbull (Hibernian)
37. A. B. - Willie Waddell (Rangers)
38. B. - Jimmy Walker (Partick Thistle)
39. A. B. - Willie Woodburn (Rangers)
40. A. - Geo. Young (Rangers) - different picture to below
B. - Geo. Young (Rangers) - different picture to above
It appears in our updated British Trade Index as :
- SUNDAY MAIL JUNIOR SPORTS CLUB. 142 x 90. Captions appear on picture as facsimile autograph, or in roughly printed capitals. Two printings. Unnd. (89 known). Plain back. See HS-110 ... SUN-250
1. B&W, words "Copyright" and "Photograph" in capitals.
2. Coloured, words ""Copyright" and "Photograph" in upper and lower case letters
Tuesday, 7th October 2025
To save this week being entirely trade cards, here we have a very early tobacco card, from a set which, rather amazingly, shows the editors of the leading newspapers of America.
This card shows Michael Henry de Young, who, along with his brother, Charles, set up their own newspaper, "The Daily Dramatic Chronicle", in 1865. Most thrilling of all, it was funded by a $20 gold piece, which someone had loaned them.
It seems rather strange that or man was on the card, for he was a shadowy figure, preferring to keep out of the limelight, so much so that his name was absent from the printed pages, replaced by another brother`s, Gustavus. However in later life this seems to have altered, so much so that he stood for the Senate in 1895, but lost.
But I am moving too fast....
They moved fast too, though, and less than ten years after its founding, their paper was read by more people than any other, at least on the west side of the Country - for obviously, there were larger towns on the Eastern side, including New York, and Washington. This success was enough to see them moving into ever bigger premises - eventually, in 1889, they would be the owners of San Francisco's first ever skyscraper, which, though damaged in the 1906 earthquake, was rebuilt, and well, for it still stands - though it is no longer connected with newspapers, it is the HQ of the Ritz-Carlton hotel group.
We took a fair time to tie this loose end, for we featured a card from the small sized version of this set as our Card of the Day for the 7th of September 2023 - a set which has the honour of being catalogued by Jefferson Burdick as USA/1.
However, though it is clear that the large and small are allied, he chooses to split them up, so our card for today is actually listed further down the page in a section for the large version. That reads :
Large Cards
Measure 3 x 3 1/4 inches. All show the corresponding small card design with other pictorial matter added.
- American Editors (50). 1st series, numbered.
Just like the smaller version, the reverse of these cards all say "First Series", but there never was a Second Series.
Mr. Burdick rates this larger version highly too, valuing them at 50 cents a card, the only large set, out of the ten listed, to be valued so.
Though his listing was used for our World Tobacco Issues Indexes, we chose to combine the large and small sets together under section one, which covers all the coloured cards issued before the founding of the American Tobacco company in 1890. So our listing reads :
- AMERICAN EDITORS. Nd. (50) ... A36-1
A. Small. Ref. USA/1
B. Large. Ref USA/35
And this text also appears in our updated version of the World Tobacco Issues Index, just with a new card code, of A400-010.
And this set was also produced as a printed album, which you can read more about with our Card of the Day for the 7th of September 2023
Now if we return to our card, there is something else to add - for, thanks to the reader who supplied it. we also have something else interesting, and that is a complete list of all the editors, their newspapers, and also the scene which has been added to the surroundings on the larger cards, but is absent on the small ones. These are :
- Geo. Abel - "The Baltimore Sun" - Washington Monument, Baltimore
- Felix Agnus - "The Baltimore American" - Fort Mc Henry, Chesapeake Bay
- John Arkins - "Denver Rocky Mountain News" - The Foot Hills
- Lewis Baker - "St Paul Daily Globe" - Falls of Minnehaha
- A.H. Belo - "The Galveston Daily News" - A Texas Ranch, Lassoing Cattle
- Jas. Gordon Bennett - "The New York Herald" - The Obelisk, Central Park. N.Y.
- George Bleistein - "Buffalo Courier"- Delaware Avenue, Buffalo
- Alden J. Blethen - "The Minneapolis Tribune" - A Group of Mills as seen from the River
- Saml. Bowles - "Springfield Republican" - Armory Ground, Springfield
- J.M. Bundy - "New York Mail and Express" - Broadway, New York
- W.D. Bickham - "Dayton Daily Journal" - Miami Canal, Dayton, Ohio
- Geo. W. Childs - "Philadelphia Public Ledger" - Public Ledger Building, Philadelphia
- W.W. Clapp - "Boston Morning Jouirnal" - Brewer Fountain, Boston Common
- A.S. Colyar - "The Daily American" - Steamer on the Tennessee warped through the "Suck"
- Edwin Cowles - "The Cleveland Leader" - Euclid Avenue, Cleveland
- Charles A. Dana - "The New York Sun" - N.Y. Post Office
- F.W. Dawson - "The Charleston News and Courier" - View of City of Charleston
- M.H. de Young - San Francisco Chronicle - Vine Growing, California
- S. J. Flickinger - The Columbus Daily Ohio State Journal" - The Capital, Columbus
- Allan Forman - "The Journalist" - East River Bridge, New York
- G.C. Goodwin - "The Salt Lake Daily Tribune" - Salt Lake City
- Henry W. Grady - "The Atlanta Constitution" - Court House, Atlanta
- Murat Halstead - "The Cincinnatti Commercial Gazette" - 4th Street Cincinnatti
- Jos. R. Hawley - "The Hartford Courant" - Main Street Bridge, Hartford
- Charles H. Jones - "Jacksonville Times Union" - On the Coast of Florida
- George R. Jones - "The New York Times" - Statue of Liberty, N.Y.
- Albert R. Lamar - "The Macon Telegraph" - Picking, Ginning Pressing / The Plant, the Bloom
- Page McCarty - "The Richmond Daily Times" - Washington Monument, Richmond
- J.B. McCullagh - "St. Louis Globe Democrat" - Shaw`s Garden, St. Louis
- John R. McLean - "The Cincinnatti Enquirer" - Art School & Museum, Cincinnatti
- Joseph Medill - "The Chicago Tribune" - Tribune Building
- Jno. C. New - "The Indianapolis Journal" - State Capital, Indianapolis
- Mrs. E.J. Nicholson - "The New Orleans Daily Picayune" - The St. John`s Hotel, New Orleans
- William Penn Nixon - "The Chicago Daily Inter-Ocean" - On Wabash Avenue, Chicago
- Crosby S. Noyes - "The Evening Star" - West Front, Capitol, Washington D.C.
- Frank R. O`Neil - "The St. Louis Missouri Republican" - St. Louis Bridge
- Oswald Ottendorfer "New Yorker Staats-Zeitung" - Staats-Zeitung Building - New York
- Joseph Pulitzer - "The New York World" - Central Park, N.Y.
- William Purcell - "The Rochester Union and Advertiser" - Agriculture
- William E. Quinby - "Detroit Free Press"- The Depot at Night, Detroit
- Whitelaw Reid - "New York Tribune"- "The Tribune Building - New York"
- O.H. Rothaker - "The Omaha Republican" - Valley of the Platte
- Richard H. Silvester - "The Washington Post" - East Front, Capitol, Washington D.C.
- William M. Singerly - "The Philadelphia Record" - The Record Building, Philadelphia
- John A. Sleicher - Albany Evening Journal" - Albany, from East Albany
- Charles Emory Smith - "The Philadelphia Press" - New City Hall, Philadelphia
- Melville E Stone - "The Chicago Daily News" - Chicago
- Charles H. Taylor - "The Boston Daily Globe" - Bunker Hill Monument, Boston
- R.T. Van Horn - "Kansas City Daily Journal" - Stock Ranch, N. Kansas
- Henry Watterson - "The Louisville Courier Journal" - In the Mammoth Cave
Wednesday, 8th October 2025
Here we have a newspaper as background, but also as subject, of a sort, as the title is "Another Newspaper Stunt".
Actually, though, there are two newspapers named on this card, if you look closely, the large newspaper to the right being "The Daily Telegraph" (which was founded on the 29th of June 1855, as the Daily Telegraph & Courier), and the wording on the sack being for "The News of the World" (which you may be surprised to learn pre-dates The Daily Telegraph, for it was founded on the first of October 1843).
Even the phrase "Newspaper Stunt" is nothing new, and was commonplace in the nineteenth century, often taking the form of a journalist writing a story as if they had been on the scene when they had not. And it was especially prevalent during and after the American Civil War.
This set is getting scarcer, and it is a mixture of domestic animals and wild ones. Some of the cards show the animals dressed, and one shows an elephant riding a bicycle, which are thankfully things which we no longer find acceptable, but there are a few of those cards, all featuring chimpanzees, which refer to sports, these being cricket (No.35, How`s That), football (No.40, "Playing to the Gallery"), and boxing (No.46, "Down and Out").
The set is almost certainly first recorded as a New Issue in the "Cigarette Card News", and I will try to find that before this goes to print. Its next appearance comes in our original Godfrey Phillips reference book, RB.13, published in 1949, where it is listed as :
- 111. "Our Favourites". Medium cards, size 60 x 53 m/m. Fronts printed by letterpress in black and white, varnished. Backs in black, no descriptive text. Issued 1935
By the time of our original World Tobacco Issues Index, this has been shortened to read :
- "OUR FAVOURITES". Md. Black and white. Nd. (48) ... P50-118
And this remains the same in the updated version, save a new card code, of P521-464. In no reference does it mention something that I only saw when I laid out this card, and that is that on the horizontal format fronts, the back is actually sideways on. But this picture makes that clear.
Thursday, 9th October 2025
`Here we have more newspapers, being discharged from a conveyor belt on to a table to be stamped, and, at one time, but no more, there was a special, reduced, rate called "Newspaper Post". The practice was prevalent in the nineteenth century, but slowly the publishers got wise to the fact that they might be able to negotiate a special rate if they sent lots of papers together, so the newspaper stamps slowly disappeared.
We know that the first stamp specifically for newspapers was issued in Austria in the year of the Great Exhibition, 1851. It did not have a rate, it just said "Zeitungs Stampel", but it was worth 6 kreuzer in value. Originally it was blue but it was changed, briefly, in 1856, to red, then changed back.
America followed suit, in the mid 1860s, but unlike most other places, perhaps because of distance, they only ever posted lots of papers in bulk, not as single items to a householder.
Another related item is the newspaper wrapper. These had a pre-printed stamp and were fixed round each newspaper, but they were rather time consuming to fold round and gum. But from the way the papers are folded on our card it seems likely that they were about to have wrappers on them.
This version of this set first appears in our original Wills reference book part three, the full text of which reads :
- 95. 50. ROYAL MAIL. Fronts lithographed in colour; backs in black (see Fig.54), with descriptive text (except E and G below). Australian issues, 1913 :-
With "Wills`s Cigarettes" on fronts -
A. Backs with "Capstan" advertisement.
B. Backs with "Havelock" advertisement
C. Backs with "Vice Regal" advertisement
D. With anonymous backs
E. With plain backs
Without "Wills`s Cigarettes" on fronts (anonymous issues) -
F. With anonymous backs
G. With plain backs
This set is entirely different from the similarly titled series by Ogden and Clarke
We will return to that closing statement later, but it does explain why there is no mention of the Ogden and Clarke sets in our original World Tobacco Issues Index under the entry for the Wills version, where this set appears as :
- ROYAL MAIL. Sm. (50). See W/95 ...W62-235
A. "Capstan" back. Numbered.
B. "Havelock" back. Numbered.
C. "Vice Regal" back. Numbered.
D. Anonymous backs, "Wills`s Cigarettes" on front. Numbered.
E. Plain backs. "Wills`s Cigarettes" on front. Unnumbered.
The first thing you will notice is that sets F and G, the sets "Without "Wills`s Cigarettes" on fronts" are not there. However, if you go to the back of the book, you will find "F", as :
- ZA3-5. ROYAL MAIL. Sm. Nd. (50) see W/95.F
However, I have not yet tracked down set G, not even in the section for plain backed cards. It is possible that it was an error of reporting, or an error of printing, cut down from a proof sheet, a one off, as it were, not worth recording.
In our updated World Tobacco Issues Index, the listing is identical to above, and reads :
- ROYAL MAIL. Sm. (50). See W/95 ...W675-368
A. "Capstan" back. Nd.
B. "Havelock" back. Nd. (a) with (b) without "Wills`s Cigarettes" on front.
C. "Vice Regal" back. Nd.
D. Anonymous backs, "Wills`s Cigarettes" on front. Nd.
E. Plain backs. "Wills`s Cigarettes" on front. Unnd.
So let us now return to the fact that the Ogden`s and Clarke`s version of this set was different to the Wills` one, because it is very true. However, they are in a similar style, and there is a theory that it was intended to be a second series for Ogden and Clark, but that was not taken up. The only problem with that is that the Wills version is really heavily Australian based, and I can see no reason for that to be the case if the set was intended for issue in the United Kingdom.
So here is a checklist which lists the Australian version first, and the British version, bracketed in italics, second.
- Sorting Letters, GPO London - [The Post Office Stone, South Africa]
- Loading Mails on Ocean Liner -[Ralph Allen, 1693-1764]
- Old English Mail Coach - [John Palmer, 1741-1818]
- Mail Coach, Western Australia - [Sir Rowland Hill, K.C.B.]
- Carrying Mail to Kiandra WA - [The Old General Post Office in Lombard Street]
- Post Office at Gold Diggings, Australia - [The G.P.O. in Mail Coach Days]
- General Post Office, London - [Mail Coach Attacked by a Lioness]
- South African Letter Carrier - [A Mail Coach in a Flood]
- Sir Roland (sic) Hill - [A Mail Coach in a Snow-Drift]
- Fast Modern Turbine Mail Steamer - [Hurrying on the Mails After a Breakdown]
- Transhipping Mail Under Steam - [Taking up Mail Bags Without Stopping]
- Collecting Letters from Pillar Box - [The Mail Coach Guard]
- Sleigh Post in North-West Canada - [An Early Travelling Post Office]
- Sydney (NSW) Postman, City Uniform - [Royal Parcel Post Coach]
- Loading Vans (GPO London) for Railway Transport - [The St. Kilda Mail Bag]
- The Last Mail Coach Guard (James Nobbs) - [Postman With Catamaran]
- Wolverhampton's Solitary Postman (1834) - [The Mashonaland Zebra Mail Team]
- Auckland (NZ) Post Office 50 Years Ago - [Native Postman, Natal]
- Analysis of Mail London to Edinburgh showing Free and Payable Packages - [Native Postman, Calcutta]
- British Guiana Postman - [Native Postman, Trinidad]
- Old London Two Penny Postman - [Postman, Sydney, N.S. Wales]
- A Letter Woman, 1769 - [An African Postal Runner]
- Manchester Postman - [English Postman]
- English Rural District Postman - [Mail Day in the Bush]
- First London Pillar Box - [The Mails Icebound in Canada]
- River Postman - [A Primitive Post Office, Matabeleland]
- Receiving and Delivery Mails Train in Motion - [Rural Post Office India]
- Parcel Hospital - [Mail Train Exchange Apparatus]
- Custom Section Examining Parcels - [Royal Mail Motor Van]
- Sorting in Train - [Disembarking Mails at Sea]
- English Military Post Office - [Shipping American Mails at Southampton]
- London Postman Delivering Letters - [Loading Mail at Riverside Station]
- Inauguration of Pneumatic Tube - [Interior of a Railway Post Office]
- Newcastle Postman, 1824 - [Loading Parcel Van at Mount Pleasant]
- Sorting School at GPO London - [Unloading and Opening Parcel Mails]
- Field Post Office - [Despatching Letter Mails at the G.P.O.]
- Loading Mail Train at Paddington, London - [City Postman Arranging Letters for Delivery]
- Conveyor Discharging Newspapers on Stamping Table - [Despatching Parcels from Chief Office, London]
- Public Post Office in England - [Cancelling and Date Marking Machine]
- Parcel Coach for Short Journeys in Gt Britain - [Unloading Parcel Vans At Mount Pleasant]
- Conveying from Tender to Train - [Christmas Traffic Supplementary Van]
- Postman on Skis, Scotland - [London Postmen Starting on Delivery]
- GHR Mail Train Snowed Up - [Sorting Parcels at Chief London Depot]
- An Out Station Post Office, Cape Colony - [Sub-Sorting Mail Parcels]
- Parcel Motor (Replacing Horse Coaches) - ["Blind" Letter Division G.P.O.]
- Aerial Post (Hendon to Windsor, England) - [Opening a Colonial Mail]
- Type of London Mail Van - [Newspaper Sorting At The G.P.O.]
- General Post Office, Calcutta - [Unloading a Mail at the G.P.O.]
- Motor Collecting from Pillar Box - [Christmas Pressure at the G.P.O.]
- Parcel Post, Achil Island - [The General Post Office]
Friday, 10th October 2025
This card was sent me by a reader who has been compiling a list of the countries, the newspapers, and the figures - simply because France has a lot of different newspapers, and it is presumed other countries may also have more than one. But this is where the list seems to have halted, the same cards keep turning up that are already listed, and no more. The last addition, some time ago, was the Russian one, which seems very scarce indeed - and I have anglicised the wording, which is in Cyrillic.
He also has a list of other issuers, which I will have to tap in later, and maybe at the same time we will even change this anonymous version for a back showing one of those.
Anyway the cards known so far are :
- America - "The New York Herald" - a Native American
- Austria - "Neue Freie Presse" - a man in lederhosen
- Belgium - "L`Independance" - a soldier in a green uniform
- Brazil - "Jornal do Commercio" - a man in shorts dancing
- Cuba - "La Voz de Cuba" - a man in a striped suit
- France - "Gil Blas" - a man in red tights with a cherub
- France - "La Chronique Parisienne" - lady in short red velvet outfit with boots
- France - "La France" - a lady dressed as the Statue of Liberty"
- France - "La Lanterne" - a boy with a lamp in his hand
- France - "La Parisienne" - a lady in a pink long dress
- France - "La Republique Francaise" - a lady with a sword and lion
- France - "Le Figaro" - man in bullfighting outfit
- France - "Le Gauloise" - an ancient Gaul with shield and helmet
- France - "Le Journal Amusant" - a lady dressed as a chicken
- France - "Le Monde Illustrie" - a lady in red with a drawing and a globe
- France - "Le Petit Journal" - a newspaper boy with the papers in his sack
- France - "Le Petit Parisien" - a boy blowing a pretend flute
- France - "Le Rappel" - a soldier in tricorn hat with a drum
- France - "Le Temps" - Old Father Time
- France - "Le Voltaire" - elderly woman in armchair with globe
- France - "L`Univers" - a man in a loose red robe with armour beside him
- Germany- "Rheinische Zeitung" - a soldier with a beer stein [the first word is obscured but it is Rheinische]
- Great Britain - "The Times" - a soldier in red
- Italy - "Il Secolo Gazetta di Milano" - lady with tambourine
- Russia - "Tonocb" - a man in a blue Russian uniform and fur hat
- Spain - "La Epoca" - a lady flamenco dancer
And so we close for another week, in which we have moved steadily towards the end of the year, and it has become colder and damper underfoot. Time, then, to seek warmth and comfort, and, of course, cards, in more welcoming places, indoors, at a fair, rather than outdoors in a field. Remember to check our diary regularly and you may find somewhere to while away the hours, and forget the cold outside. And who knows what treasures lie within.....?