Hopefully you have been coping with the heatwave, despite the fact that Britain`s hottest day ever was on Wednesday June 24th, with a temperature of 97ºF, recorded in Gosport, Hampshire .But do spare a thought for our neighbours in France, who this week saw 105* in Paris and 109* in Bordeaux.
Because this kind of heat renders dog walking impossible I thought I would finish this really early, but I had a lot of phone calls, in and out, to tackle. And Friday was another morning at the vets, which failed to sort out the problem and so now I am typing this at the vet hospital. But once we are both back I will try to crack on and upload this, either at midnight, or whenever it is finished enough to do so. Though at the moment it will be just three days complete and one day text but no picture.
Website News:
I also thought I would really crack on with the indexing of the back issues of our newsletters, but I only managed to do two. The one of the 27th of May 2023 was no trouble at all but the one of the 20th of May 2023 needed three cards to be changed because I found the set was already in the gallery when I went to type it in.
The first of these was Wills` "Famous Inventions" - the export issue, which actually remained in the newsletter because I could find no other kinetoscopes, and it was an interesting story of how the machine on the card was not really a kinetoscope at all, so I changed the other, which was about solar power, to a card from Topps / Allen & Ginter`s "World`s Fair" (2017).
The second substitution was another Wills` card, "Double Meanings" with playing card insert. In this case I kept the other version and changed this, also changing the subject from National Brothers Day to the writing, on that day, of the nursery rhyme "Mary had a Little Lamb", and using a card from Bassett`s "Nursery Rhymes".
The third change kept the subject and theme, for the original card was Lambert & Butler`s "Hints & Tips for Motorists", showing a driver asking a householder for paraffin and it has now become Liebig`s “La Production du Petrole”, showing a driver at a petrol station.
What`s On This Week...
Our regular round up of branch and club events, which this week are :
Saturday the 4th of July -
- Lincolnshire - from 10.30 a.m. at Kirton Leisure, 31a Willington Road, Kirton, Boston PE21 1EP. Now there is no August meeting at this branch, their next is Saturday the 5th of September
Sunday the 5th of July -
- Winchester & Solent - afternoon meet-up from 1.30 p.m. until 4.00 p.m. at Botley Market Hall, High Street, Botley, near Southampton SO30 2EA
Thursday the 9th of July - three meetings !
- North East - from 6.30 p.m. at Dunston U.T.S., Wellington Road, Dunston, Gateshead, NE11 9JL. They don`t have an August meeting either, their next is Thursday the 3rd of September
- Cotswolds - from 7 p.m. on the second Thursday of the month at Uckington Village Hall, The Green, Tewkesbury Road, Uckington, Cheltenham GL51 9SR
- Reading - at 7.30 pm (for 8 pm start) at Charvil Village Hall, Park Lane, Charvil, Twyford RG10 9TR.
Sunday the 12th of July :
- Hants & Surrey - All Day Quarterly Fair - from 10 am until 4 pm. at Normandy Village Hall, Manor Fruit Farm, Glaziers Lane, Normandy, GU3 2DD. Free admission to all for this one!
And now on with this week`s newsletter..... starting with :
KENT Police [trade : giveaways : UK - Kent] "Olympic Athletes" (1988) 26/30
Today we think of a trip to the cash machine as part of everyday life, or maybe not so much, since covid, which made cash fall out of favour. But until the late 1960s you still had to queue up and go to the counter at the bank to get money out of your account. At least until today, in 1967, when the world`s first Automated Teller Machine (or A.T.M.) was unveiled at Barclays Bank, in Enfield today in 1967.
In charge of the unveiling was local celebrity, comedian Reg Varney. I`m really not sure why a comedian was chosen for such an event, save that he was very popular at the time, but comedy and banking, at that time, especially, seems an odd combination.
As for why the Enfield branch was selected, apparently it was because the area had a good cross section of customers, the pavements were not too cluttered, the bank itself had high windows to make fitting the machine easy, and, probably the major reason, that one of those windows was to an empty room large enough to take the bit of the dispensing machine that is not seen by the customer.
As to how it worked, you had to buy a special slip from the counter in advance and insert it into the machine. The slip was a bit like a cheque, with the added bonus of a little radiation, because it was impregnated with Carbon-14. Then the machine would issue you with a ten pound note. It must have been quite magical, but of course the reality was that when the staff came in the next morning they opened the other side of the machine, took out the slips, got their bit of radiation, and then went through every slip debiting ten pounds from the relevant accounts by hand.
Sadly the machine has long gone, swept away by ever increasing technology and the need for anti-fraud measures. We know that it was not too long before the slips had to be dotted with a secret code to represent the customer`s own four digit personal identification number and that customer had to input the same number into the machine before they would receive the ten pound note, and that definitely points to someone finding out a way to get money for nothing.
In 2017, on the fiftieth anniversary of the unveiling, a plaque was placed on the wall and one of the modern machines was painted gold, which still remains. However, and sadly, the cash machine is no longer important, or relevant, to today`s lives, made redundant, just like cheques, by the arrival of the banking app which allows you to pay anyone simply by tapping on your mobile phone.
I could not find a card of an A.T.M., but maybe you know of one? Until then we have this, which I at first thought was a set issued by Barclays in conjunction with the Kent Police, but it turns out that there were many companies involved, as you can see from the following list :
- Said Aouita - Girobank Visa
- Jackie Joyner-Kersee - Coca Cola
- Sergey Bubka - Orion Insurance
- Petra Felke - Girobank Visa
- Ben Johnson - British Telecom
- Liz McColgan - Tesco
- Carl Lewis - Kent Reliance Building Society
- Natalya Lisovskaya - Brake Bros (Frozen Foods) Ltd
- Butch Reynolds - Stoneborough Centre, Maidstone Shopping Centre
- Rosa Mota - Girobank Visa
- Thomas Schonlebe - Geerings of Ashford Limited
- Silke Moller - Coca Cola
- John Regis - Dairy Crest Foods
- Heike Drechsler - Coca Cola
- Abdi Bile - Giro bank Visa
- Stefla Kostadinova - Stoneborough Centre, Maidstone Shopping Centre
- Ed Moses - Coca Cola
- Ingrid Kristiansen - British Telecom
- Greg Foster - Girobank Visa
- Fatima Whitbread - HFC Bank
- Patrick Sjoberg - Coca Cola
- Peter Elliott - HFC Bank
- Jack Buckner - Pearl Assurance
- Roger Black - Dairy Crest Foods
- Linford Christie - Milk for Sport for All
- Sebastian Coe - Barclays Bank
- Steve Cram - Nat West Bank
- Daley Thompson - Lucozade
- John Ridgeon - Dairy Crest Foods
- Kent County Constabulary badge.
Now it is said that the cards were given out by policemen on patrol and that you had to approach them and ask for a card, but I wonder if some of the cards were not also given away by, or at, the businesses on them?
Tapioca de L`ETOILE [trade : tapioca : O/S - France] "L`Exposition Universelle 1889" (1900) Un/?
Moving on I wonder how many of you knew that it is #TapiocaDay today? Or even what tapioca really is?
We have touched on it a few times already in our newsletters, but it is basically a starch which comes from the tubers of the Cassava plant. Now at one time that only grew in Brazil, but it is now successfully grown in Africa and Asia, where it has adapted very well to their hot climate and sometimes nutrient poor soils.
As for Tapioca, it is a kind of carbohydrate which is low in proteins, vitamins and minerals, but it is still one of the chief foods for lots of tropical regions.In other places it is used primarily as a thickener because its lack of nutriments and taste, which means it does not affect the flavour of what you are trying to thicken.
Our card looks like it was issued at the Universal Exposition in Paris in 1899, but the line almost at the top seems to refer to last year`s medal, because on the reverse it mentions a follow up gold medal in 1900. It is part of a series showing the wonders of the Exposition, and so far we know of :
- Entree Principale
- Esplanade des Invalides (Cote Gauche)
- Grand Salle des ???
- Le Grand Palais
- Le Mareorama
- La Pagode de Vischnou
- Le Palais Fabert (Esplanade des Invalides)
- Le Palais Ponsin
- La Plats Forme Mobile dans sur Mer
- Les Tours de Berne
- Nouvelle Gare des Invalides
- Nouvelle Gare d`Orleans
- Palais de Droite, Esplanade des Invalides
- Palais de la Ceramique
- Palais de l`Education et de L`Enseignement
- Palais des Bonshommes Guillaume
- Palais des Fils et Tissus
- Palais du Genie Civil
- Palais des Industries diverses
- Palais des Mines et de la Metallurgie
- Palais Espagnole
- Palais Japonais
- Panorama du Tour de Monde
- Pavillon de l`Horticulture
- Pavillon des Puissances Etrangeres
- Pavillon de Commissaire General
- Pont Alexandre III
Now the curious thing is that when I started going back through the newsletters I found this card, with a very similar back, in the copy dated for the 6th of January, 2024, as the first card up on Saturday, 6th January. It was issued by Monsieur A. Chapu of Paris, France, with "Perles du Japon", which is tapioca, but made into small spherical balls, like pearls. And it shares the exact same star, flanked by "Marque" and "Deposee" - which means Registered Trademark. So that must mean our card was issued by Monsieur Chapu either before he used his own name, or as a subsidiary company. More importantly, though, we also know that some cards issued to promote "perles du Japon" mention the company winning a gold medal at L`Exposition Universelle in 1889, and that links directly to our card, proving the connection.
SCANLEN`S [trade : bubble gum : O/S -Australia] "Cricket" (1965) 30/40
Now this card may actually tell us that our man was born today, June 29th, 1939, but it somehow manages to get two "L""s in his forename on both the front and back.
His name was actually Alan Norman Connolly, with one "L" in his forename, and he was born in Skipton, Victoria, a small town south west of Ballarat.
He was almost certainly included in this set because he had been on the Australian team that toured England in 1964, though it did not go well for him, he was injured several times and did not play at his best. That fact is also mentioned on our card, which describes him as a "Victorian fast-medium bowler upset by injuries during the 1964 tour of England."
He actually took part in twenty-nine tests between 1963 and 1971.
He also played for Victoria, from 1959, taking 330 wickets out of eighty-three matches, which at that time was a state record
In 1969 he joined Middlesex, but in 1971 he was was dropped from the squad and decided to return to Australia, retiring officially at the end of the season, citing back trouble.
Our set was sold in wax packets with the name of "Scanlen`s Cricket Bubble Gum" and that makes them true trade. The packet also mentions "with new quiz", and that relates to the fact that every card has a question at the bottom of the reverse, with the answer upside down below it on the same card. Our question is : "Which State cricket captain is known to fellow players as "The Phantom" - and the answer is "Victorian Captain Bill Lawry". As to why, it is because when he was sixteen he was on a train with the rest of his teammates and he spent most of the journey reading that comic rather than socialising with his older team mates.
Going back to our man, he appears on very few cards, and this is the only one, as far we have been able to discover, that was issued during his playing career, his next appearance coming in 1992, as part of County Print`s "1960s Test Cricketers"
CORNERSTONE Communications Inc. [trade/commercial : O/S - USA] "Doctor Who" - series 1 (1994) 110/110
Today, in 1937, a new emergency telephone line was unveiled in London, after a tragic fire in Wimpole Street, in November 1935, which resulted in the deaths of five women. The recommendations after that case was that there had to be a telephone number which would immediately alert the authorities that there was an emergency, so they would respond quickly. And it was also agreed that it must be accessible to all, even to people who saw an incident but were not carrying any money to use a standard telephone box.
Initially the "999" scheme only covered twelve miles in all directions from Oxford Circus, but spread across London shortly after. As it had proved successful it was introduced in Glasgow a year later. Then the Second World War came along, and so it did not reach Belfast, Birmingham, Bristol, Edinburgh, Liverpool, Manchester or Newcastle until after hostilities had ceased. And all other places had to wait, right until 1976.
Before and in between that we had the police call box, first seen in the early 1920s. These had a phone on the outside with an emergency line that got you through to the police, but the inside was only reachable by a policeman with a key. Inside you imagine all sorts of wonders, but there was simply a small desk, a stool, and another phone, which was primarily for use if there was a problem in that area, when the orange light on top would flash and a bell would ring. However they were also used for a brief sit down if the policeman got a bit weary of an afternoon, and wants somewhere secret to read the papers. What younger readers may not realise is that in those days there were no mobile phones, so this was the only way of contacting a bobby on the beat. And they also performed another function or two that you may not realise, because they were almost impossible to get in or out of without a key, so they could be pressed into service both as refuges for the policeman in case of riot or attack, or as jails for captured wrongdoers.beat.
However with the rise of portable radios and home telephones they were no longer needed, and by the 1970s they had almost all disappeared. But in the 1960s, when "Doctor Who" arrived on television, they were part of the scenery, so the back story made perfect sense. And that back story was that wherever and whenever the TARDIS landed, it would assume the shape of a commonly seen item as a disguise. However in the very first adventure, in 1963, the circuit that enabled it to change shape and blend in worked to turn it to a police call box, but not to turn it back again. And it was stuck in that shape ever after. Though the back of this card also says that the sixth doctor [who was Colin Baker] got the circuit working again but only briefly, and hints that by then he rather liked the police box shape, so never attempted to change it back again.
This set starts with three checklists, then goes on to tell of some of the best loved adventures over the next fifty five cards, starting with Marco Polo and ending with "Survival", part of season twenty-six. Cards 59 to 73 show all the Doctors, from the first, William Hartnell, to the Seventh, Sylvester McCoy. Then cards 74 to 84 are some of the companions, starting with Ian Chesterton, but strangely not Barbara Wright, and ending with Ace. Cards 85 to 99 are villains, including Daleks and Cybermen. And cards 100 to 110 tell of the legends created by the show, ending up with the TARDIS. as seen here today.
There were also special cards, seven "Prism" cards showing the first seven doctors, and autograph cards signed by Anthony Ainley (the Master), Sophie Aldred (Ace), Colin Baker (the Sixth Doctor), Peter Davison (the Fifth Doctor) John Leeson (who was the voice of K9), John Levene (Sergeant Benton), and William Russell (Ian Chesterton - who is the scarcest autograph to get). Strangely John Leeson signed his cards in either blue or black, either at two separate signings or perhaps the pen ran out half way through, but this has led to lots of collectors and fans wanting both.
There is also a separate autograph of John Levene, which was a limited edition on 150 cards but is signed in gold ink, and this was only inserted with a special issue called the John Levene Signature Set.
Then there was another one off card, a "Dalek Prism" card, which was only available if you bought a "factory set", something which started out with baseball cards and means that rather than a selection of random packets sold as a "retail" or "hobby" box, a complete set is packaged up and sold in one box.
Lastly, promo cards for the set were given away with "Doctor Who Monthly" magazine These say "PROMOTIONAL" where our card says "THE LEGEND" and are cards A1, A2 and A3. Three were available, showing the Doctor Who Logo (A1), five doctors in a vintage car (A2 - the five being Tom Baker, Peter Davison, William Hartnell, John Pertwee, and Patrick Troughton) and K9 with Sarah Jane Smith, Tom Baker`s travelling companion (A3)
And now tell me why I picked Doctor Who to write of when I am already out of time....?
COLLECTORS Shop [trade : collectables and cards : UK - 35, London Road, Twickenham, Middx] "Bonus Card A - tree creeper" (19??) Un/3
Today, for some reason, probably to rub it in that I am very late, it is #EarlyBirdDay. Now this refers to the old adage, "The early bird gets the worm", or in some versions "The early bird Catches the worm", and it means if a bird gets up and out early it stands more chance of catching worms for its family before other birds come along and get them all. It is usually used as an encouragement for humans, telling them that if there is something they want to do or buy it is best to do so as soon as you can, like if you see a concert coming up and you know lots of people will be clamouring for tickets, you need to get them early.
And apologies for this being the first thought I had.
Another connected thought is that we should all make an effort to be awake and watch the sunrise, or go to market, and get the bargains before any other collector. And if you live in London, why not try to take in Bermondsey Antiques Market, in its seventy-fifty year of operation - which opens every Friday at 6 a.m....
The first birds to wake up vary in different parts of Britain, but the most likely in all are the robin and the blackbird, both of whom are partial to a spot of early morning worming. And we know that they start to sing before the rest of the birds either, sometimes two hours before sunrise.
However we have spoken of both these birds, and several times, before.
Then I got sent this scan, which is a tree creeper. Now research proves that this is a bird that does not particularly like earthworms, but, luckily for me, it is extraordinarily partial to mealworms.
There is also another connection with "the early bird" here because you needed to collect twenty-five cards in order to exchange them for a full set, which carries with it, rightly or wrongly, a bit of panic, as the collector does not know how popular the offer will be, he may have only twenty cards before all the free sets are gone.
And I do like these "Collectors Shop" cards, though one day I must feature, as a Card of the Day, the card which comes first of all in our listing in both our original British Trade Index part two and our updated British Trade Index to cards issued before 1970 - that being the black backed Bonus Card A, undated, from "Bandsmen of the British Army". Then that will be a home page for all the gen on all the bonus cards.
WIZARDS of the Coast [trade/commercial : cards : O/S - USA] "The Simpsons" (2003) 20/156
Today, hands up, in every way, for #NationalDiscoDay.
And if you didn`t already know, "Hands Up (Give Me Your Heart)" was a 1981 song, by the French pop music duo, Ottawan - and their second-biggest international hit single, their first being the 1979 release "D.I.S.C.O."
Now I have been unable to find a card of Ottawan, but if you have one I will gladly remove the above, which shows "Disco Stu", a character from "The Simpsons", who is the son of Doo-Wop Steve and Public Domain Debbie (who I always felt a rather unlikely pairing).
He was not always "Disco Stu", at one time he was "Nautical Stu", a sailor and budding sea captain, but when Marge Simpson is called in to photograph him so he can actually apply for his Captain`s license she puts on some disco as background music and he was hooked, so much so that he once carved a devotion into a tree that read "Disco Stu [loves] Disco"
This set also has four checklists, but each devoted to a single character, Bart Simpson (number 1001), Mr. Burns (1002), Homer Simpson (1003) and Lisa Simpson (1004). On each of these the check list gives only the cards that this person, or things associated with them, appear on.
This leads me to a request. Does anyone know if there are any cards showing the Simpsons which feature "The Springfield Files" - episode ten of season eight, being a cross over with the "X-Files"? Because I don`t know of any....
TOPPS/Allen & Ginter [trade/commercial : cards : O/S - USA] "World`s Largest" - Chrome Minis (2021) MWL-8/21
This might seem like a strange card but bear with me. It was also one of the most impossible cards I ever had to scan, being chrome and not to the scanner`s liking at all. Maybe I ought to have gone for the standard mini after all.
Let`s start with the simple bit, because today is a day you have probably never heard of, and that`s #InternationalDropARockDay: Briefly that starts with you finding a reasonably sized rock in your garden, or on your travels, legally, of course, then getting out your paints. The idea is to think of an uplifting word or two, and paint it on the rock. Then, once painted, you take them out and leave them where they are easily found by someone in need of a bit of a smile. Now every year there is a theme word and this year it is "LOVE" - so the idea is that the word is surrounded by things that make you feel love, flowers, hearts, etc.
The idea started in 2015, by a group of people called the World Rocks Project with the hope of bringing a little joy into people`s lives. And it has spread a long way around the world, but it needs everyone`s help to make it a total success. So why not join in?
Now for the card above.
On the 19th of July 1873, William Christie Gosse, a surveyor, saw this rock, away in the distance and named it Ayers Rock in honour of Sir Henry Ayers, the Chief Secretary of South Australia at that time. Then, in 1993, a policy came into force that allowed for two official names to be applied, and so in December 1993 the rock became "Ayers Rock / Uluru" - not just that, but it was the first official dual-named feature in the entire Northern Territory. Then, on the 6th of November 2002, the order of these names were dramatically reversed, giving priority to the native name of Uluru.
More than anything else, this decision prioritised the fact that this was a sacred site to the Native Australians, and the rock was painted by generations of inhabitants, one picture over the other, for perhaps thirty thousand years. We don`t know who painted them, and we never will, but we know they existed, because they left these drawings, messages from the past about things that were important to them at the time.
More importantly than that, they could not just go to a shop and buy paints, so they found a way to make their own. They created it from minerals and ash from their fires, then they crushed them on flat stones and mixed them with water and animal fats. Incredibly, some of those minerals, and also the trees that they must have burned to make the ash, were not even native to that area, so we know that painting was so important to their lives to go out and trade for wood and minerals with other peoples from neighbouring, and sometimes far distant lands.
I`m not saying your rock will last for even a year, but just like those original painters, it sends a message to show what is important to you, in the hope that someone else may find it inspiring, and maybe keep it for a while. It might even become passed down to one of their family. You will never know that, much as the painters at Uluru never imagined that today we would still be standing and wondering at their work.
This set was issued as a sub set of "Baseball 2021",
All the cards in this series, and the non chrome version, have "MWL-" before the number, but we have left that off below. The subjects are :
- Cruise Ship
- Amazon Rainforest
- Blue Whale
- General Sherman Tree
- African Elephant
- Burj Khalifa
- Giant Squid
- Uluru Rock [see below]
- White Rhino
- El Capitan
- Antonov An-225 Mriya
- Bel AZ 75710
- Tanker Ship
- Submarine Tanker
- Mount Everest
- Mauna Loa
- Sahara Desert
- Pacific Ocean
- Honey Fungus
- Brown Bear
- Ostrich
- Asia
- Victoria Falls
Now do be aware that cards 22 and 23 in the above list are not available as standard mini cards, only in the chrome version. And the boxloaders are only a set of fifteen, differently numbered, being additionally prefixed by "WLB" not "WLM" - they are as follows
WLB-1. Cruise Ship
WLB-3. Blue Whale
WLB-4. General Sherman Tree
WLB.5. African Elephant
WLB.6. Giant Squid
WLB-7. Uluru Rock [see below]
WLB-8. White Rhino
WLB-10 Tanker Ship
WLB-11 Submarine Tanker
WLB-12 Mount Everest
WLB-13 Mauna Loa\
WLB-14 Sahara Desert
WLB-15 El Capitan
Now why we say "[see below]" is that there is a bit of an error on our card, as well as on the non chrome version, and the boxloader - for all of these are titled back and front as "Uluru Rock" and the "rock" bit belongs to its other name of "Ayers Rock". Some people think that it was going to be issued with both names, and the word "Ayers" was omitted by accident. Topps are not alone in making a blooper, though, as on card 24 of Brooke Bond`s 1997 set of "The Wonderful World of Kevin Tipps" the name is given on the back as Ayres Rock.
As for why there is no WLB-2, I have no idea. Do you? I can only think that it is "Amazon Rainforest", as in the two mini sets, but it has not yet been spotted, but I have looked at several websites and it is always left as a vacant space in the listings....
This week's Cards of the Day...
...and maybe with good reason, because you get more storms in hot weather, we are going to discover #LightningSafetyWeek - which is this week in America but seems not to occur in the British isles, though we do get lightning, and, every year, it causes injuries and fatalities.The only form of advice as to protection seems to be offered by mountaineering sites, who say the best thing to do if you even suspect lightning is to safely get down the mountain as quickly as you can, and keep walking, don`t be tempted to hide beneath a tree, or in a cave. Other dangers are the lightning striking metal on your body or rucksack and equipment, or even hitting the rope if you are abseiling, especially in damp or wet conditions.
Saturday, 20th June 2026
So our first clue shifted our regular Saturday Soccer Spot to America, which is where the Lightning Safety Week takes place. We also chose a card of the Los Angeles Chargers, who compete in the National Football League or NFL, and who not only use a curving lightning strike logo, but have done since the team began in 1960, even through a move to San Diego. You can see that on our card, by looking at the helmet. And last year California had more lightning than usual, recording almost eighty thousand strikes in peak season, between the beginning of June and the end of August.
Our man is James Robert Brooks and he was born on December the 28th, 1958. He started playing American Football at his High School. Warner Robins, in Georgia, and continued when he went to Auburn College, in Alabama, in 1977. He made the cut of the NFL Draft in 1981, joining the San Diego Chargers, and this is often supposed to be his "Rookie" card, but it turns out he was also featured as part of a short run, unnumbered series of sixteen cards jointly issued by the local Kiwanis Club, Pepsi Cola, and the San Diego Police, we just don`t know which was issued first.
In 1984 he moved to the Cincinnatti Bengals, and in 1992 to the Cleveland Browns, ending his career through injury, with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, in Florida, in the same year, 1992. This injury is said to be minor, but I cannot find out any more - whatever it was, it was not so minor as to allow him to play on, as he was only thirty-three years old.
Our set has cards and three sorts of stickers.
The cards are true trade as "fifteen picture cards" were inserted with "I stick bubble gum". However, the stickers were not in this packet, they were in a separate packet named as "1982 Topps Football Album Stickers" and they also did not include any gum. We also believe that they were for a separate album to the cards, but I`ve not proved that yet. I also have no idea of how many stickers were in a packet or what the packet retailed for, but the set contained 288 stickers
The majority of the stickers were standard, but certain ones were on foil - these were the first ten stickers, dealing with the Sixteenth Annual Super Bowl and the 1981 NFC and AFC Championship, as well as Joe Montana, voted Most Valuable Player of that particular Super Bowl, then a selection of players (once again including Joe Montana), on stickers 70-77, 139-160, and 220-227 inclusive. I mention this because some people think that this set followed the modern day practise of having a base set and then the same set with a foil inset or printed on foil. That is not the case here, the foil cards and the standard cards were inserted in the same envelope and were part of the same set. But you can find stickers with "Coming Soon" printed on the reverse, and these were actually issued in the packs with the cards, as a kind of teaser. They are pretty scarce, but they are actually trade - as they came in the packet which had the gum, not the packets which only had the stickers.
Sunday, 21st June 2026
Our second clue showed Usain "Lightning" Bolt, a nickname that again refers to his lightning-fast speed. And lightning is fast, with high end speeds of over 270,000 m.p.h. However the sound and the light actually come at different times; when it strikes an object a flash of light is observed, and we see that straight away. The heat of the lightning makes the sound of the thunder, which is transmitted through the atmosphere at the speed of sound, and that is slower than the lightning. And that is how, with a fair bit of accuracy, we can start counting in seconds once you have seen the flash and stop when you hear the rumble. Then, if you divide the seconds by five you get the distance the lightning is away from you in miles.
As for our man, he is actually The Honourable Usain St. Leo Bolt, who holds the honours of the Order of Jamaica, and the Order of Distinction (Jamaica).
He also holds many sporting honours, too many to list, but including world records in the 100, 150, and 200 metres, eight Olympic gold medals, fifteen other gold medals, five silver medals, and a bronze,, the latter from the World Athletics Championships in London, for the 100 metres.
He was born in Jamaica on the 21st of August 1986, in a town with the really lovely name of Sherwood Content, where his parents ran the grocery store. He enjoyed playing sport, including cricket and football, but his talent for running was noticed even at primary school, where he was fastest of all the children. He was also growing to be the tallest, and would eventually top out at six feet five inches.
His first taste of success at a national level was at the 2004 Carifta Games, an annual contest for track and field for athletes from across the Caribbean, and in that year held in Bermuda. He was just seventeen, and he became the first person to run two hundred metres in under twenty seconds (19,93). He was also awarded the Austin Sealy Trophy for the most outstanding athlete at the games. That almost certainly propelled him on to the Jamaican track and field squad for the 2004 Olympics at Athens.
Four years later he won his first Olympic gold medal at Beijing, for the hundred metre sprint. He won that in a record time of 9.69 seconds.
His final Olympics came in Rio de Janeiro, in 2016, where he won the hundred metres with a time of 9.81 seconds. But at the 2017 World Championships during the 4 x 100 metres relay he pulled up short, injured, and then announced his retirement from athletics.
He did dabble with football, turning out for a Norwegian side in a friendly match, being on the team for Soccer Aid 2018, and then joining the Australian team, the Central Coast Mariners, from New South Wales. But he left them after a couple of months.
Since then he has done a lot of promotional work, written his autobiography, and gained quite a following on social media.
This set is another of those with what seem like unending variations - including :
- Base set
- Autograph, black frame [mini card]
- Autograph, black frame - "X" [mini card]
- Autograph, blue frame [mini card]
- Autograph, blue frame - "X" [mini card]
- Autograph - gold ink
- Patch cards - dual, gold
- Patch cards - dual, silver
- Autograph, red frame [mini card]
- Chrome
- Chrome X
- Chrome Refractors
- Chrome Refractors [mini card]
- Chrome Gold Refractors
- Chrome Gold Refractors [mini card]
- Chrome Orange Refractors
- Chrome Orange Refractors [mini card]
- Chrome Super Fractors
- Chrome Super Fractors [mini card]
- Chrome "X"
- Chrome X-Fractors
- Foiled Filigrees - gold
- Foiled Filigrees - silver
- Glossy card
- Glossy card [mini card]
- Mini card - text back
- Mini Card - Allen & Ginter advert back
- Mini Card - black border
- Mini card - Brooklyn
- Mini card - chrome "X"
- Mini card- red "X"
- Mini card - silver "X"
- Mini card - standard "X"
- Mini card - unnumbered version
- Printing Plate - black [mini card]
- Printing Plate - cyan [mini card]
- Printing Plate - magenta [mini card]
- Printing Plate - yellow [mini card]
- Relics
- Silver Portrait
- Wood [mini card]
There may be more, but this list was supplied by the same reader who sent the scan of the card - and at this point I have to say that you can multiply these parallels by the total number of cards in the set, three hundred and fifty. That makes a total "set" of fourteen thousand three hundred and fifty cards...... And as I said above, there may be a few missing from this list.
Monday, 22nd June 2026
This is believed to be the only card of a person just after they have been struck by lightning - and not just a person, but a King, for this was Henry the Fifth, the King of Germany from 1099 to 1125 and the Holy Roman Emperor from 1111 to 1125.
In case you are wondering, he did survive, and remained King for another twenty years, but died childless.
Research has shown that no British King or Queen have ever been struck by lightning, though whilst another Henry, the British King Henry IV, was trying to quell a rebellion in Wales his tent was struck by lightning, whilst he was asleep in it, and destroyed, but he woke up and managed to get out. Though the Welsh rebels claimed that they had cast a spell on the tent, and forced it into flames. Other world leaders were not so lucky and the Roman Emperor Carus died when his tent was struck by lightning in 283 A.D., though there are suspicions that his enemies killed him and the lightning was a way of concealing the truth.
The event in this card took place at The Imperial Palace of Goslar, in central Germany. You can see the lightning, forking through the sky in the right hand window. But as for what actually happened, who knows, because putting this event in a range of search engines only brings up people offering to sell this image, and mostly taken from our card. The text on the back was a bit more helpful as it translates to "Henry V (1081-1125) was struck by lightning in the Kaiser`s Palace at Goslar. (painting by Wislicenus). This event appeared to the contemporaries of the emperor as a warning from heaven, as he had once rebelled against his father, Henry IV, and forced him to abdicate.Nevertheless, Henry V reigned for another 20 years until he died childless in Utrecht."
Knowing the artist was a bit more helpful, but not much, for it is indeed by Hermann Wislicenus, who was born in Eisenach on the 20th of September 1825, and who painted several murals in the Imperial Palace of Goslar, of which this must be one. In fact he won a competition in 1877 with the prize being being able to supply the art for the newly restored Palace of Goslar, after which he completed sixty eight frescoes tracing the history of the German Empire from Charlemagne to the present day. That took him and a succession of students some twenty years, and he died shortly after in 1899.
This card creates another puzzle for the unwary, for all that is on it by way of an issuer is "Cigaretten-Bilderdienst", and that means . Now if you look that up in our original World Tobacco Issues Index all you will find is "CIGARETTEN-BILDERDIENST, Dresden or Berlin - see under name of firm, or under brand name if brand only quoted". That`s no help to us, because our card has neither a name of firm nor a brand, but my first point of call was Reemstma, simply because they used the same system as on our card of a top line saying either "Album Nr." or "Sammelwerk Nr." followed, in both cases, by a number. And going down the Reemstma listing in that same book brings us to :
- ALBUM Nr. 12 or SAMMELWERK Nr. 12 : BILDER DEUTSCHER GESCHICHTE (Pictures from German History). Size 70 x 84. Nd. (200). Anonymous ... R16-18
A. "Album Nr. 12"
B. "Sammelwerk Nr. 12"
And this is identically described in our updated World Tobacco Issues Index, save a new card code, of R189-500
By the way, the words "Cigaretten-Bilderdienst" actually translate to "cigarette picture service", and Germany had a rather unique way of issuing cigarette cards, because the packets contained coupons, not cards, and you got the cards in exchange for the coupons, which were mailed up when you had the required amount, presumably given on the packets, to an address, presumably given on the packets - as neither of those facts appear on our card.
Tuesday, 23rd June 2026
So here we have a graphic portrayal of why not to shelter beneath a tree in a storm. Now you might immediately think that this picture just demonstrates the fact that if the lightning hits the tree in a strategic spot a branch may fall, and that is indeed correct. But if you look at the actual picture you might think again, that the lightning has hit the trunk of the tree and made it split. In fact what has probably happened is the worst case scenario, when the tree can actually explode after the lightning strikes, due to the immense heat of the lightning bolt, which does not set fire to the wood but instead heats the sap and any other liquids inside the tree, to the point that they turn to steam. And if the steam cannot get out of the tree by means of a convenient hole it makes its own way out, by blowing the tree apart..
This is a very intriguing card, because if you look in our index you will see that this set has been featured before, in pur newsletter for the 6th of July 2024, as the card for Friday the 12th of July.
However, if you take a closer look you will find that our version has a straight frame, not one decorated with circles around each corner. More than that, our card for today is Serie XXIV, whereas the other is Serie XXVII. But most importantly, our is only named for three companies, "Peter, Cailler, Kohler", whilst the other version is Peter, Cailler, Kohler, Nestle. In addition, the top line of the heading is also different, ours reading "Edite par les chocolats" here and the other version reading "Album Chocolats" in that space.
We also know that this set was issued with only the Cailler name, with the top border holding the title "Les Phenomenes de la Nature, the title of the card in the picture, and the bottom part of the picture being a black solid sayin "Cailler`s Chocolats Fins". This set is serie XVII
What we do know is that in 1904 Chocolat Kohler and Chocolat Peter agreed to go into business as a partnership, and the company was renamed Peter, Kohler. Then in 1911 they merged with another chocolate maker, Alexandre Cailler. Now this is interesting because that new company was called Peter, Cailler, Kohler, which suggests that perhaps Peter might have bought out Kohler, because Cailler is put in front of their name, and if Peter and Kohler had been running a combined company Cailler would have probably been tacked on at the end and gone last.
Anyway this means our card today must date from 1911 at the earliest. And it is no later than 1929 which is when Peter, Cailler, Kohler were bought out by Nestle. So that means that the other version, with the Nestle name on, has to date from after 1929.
Wednesday, 24th June 2026
Today`s card brings us a thunderstorm, and the lightning, though not so well defined, is arching on both sides of the central tree branch divider - on the left hand side it forks from the top frame to the three ball shaped clouds, and on the right hand side it forks from actually the other side of the tree branch divider down towards the hat of the girl in red.
If you take another look though you will notice that the sheep are being driven by the dog towards the farm, i.e. further into the middle of the picture, whilst the two girls are running towards us, a very clever use of perspective.
Despite the strange title, which translates to atmospheric variations, the cards simply deal with weather that is slightly out of the ordinary and the cards are
- La Gelee [ice]
- La Neige [snow]
- La Pluie [rain]
- Le Soleil [sunshine]
- Le Vent [wind]
- L`Orage [thunderstorm]
It appears that they were only issued in the French Language, but there is an oddity that is not immediately apparent, for the set is described in some dealers catalogues as "Liebig - Types of Weather I". However I cannot find the set two.
Thursday, 25th June 2026
The lightning here is used to suggest speed, because the cherub, very nattily attired in his top hat and tails, is promising to "...put a girdle (of Willimantic Thread) round about the Earth in forty minutes." It seems to be referring to the fact that sewing with that particular thread was faster than the rest, which, to the consumer, would suggest that it was free of knots and seldom broke, and so it would speed up the sewing.
The first curiosity about this card is that the only clue to an issuer is "Willimantic Thread". But it turns out to be much more intriguing than that.
It all begins in 1854 when the Willimantic Linen Company was founded by Austin Dunham and Lawson Ives, to produce linen cloth. However, it soon decided to abandon that and make sewing thread instead. By the 1880s, it had built four large mills, fitted them with electric light, and had a workforce of over a thousand people, who lived in a factory town on site in which their every need was met.
Now this card mentions "Atlanta 1881" on the reverse. That refers to the International Cotton Exposition, in Atlanta, which was held from October the 4th to December the 31st, 1881.
The thread was sold on its quality, and its strength. It also proudly boasted that it was an All American company, using All American materials and labour. And by 1890, most of the cotton sewing machine thread made in America was made by Willimantic.
However, in 1899, Wilimantic Linen came under the steely gaze of what was ostensibly another American company, with the patriotic name of The American Thread Company - but in fact it had been founded by J. & P. Coats of Paisley, who had its eyes on expanding into the American market. However they were canny, and did it in such a way as to avoid the usual tariffs levied on British companies and imports, namely by buying up local American businesses. And though the Willimantic Linen Company tried their best to fight off the challenge they had no choice in the end but to submit, not to Coats but to Dewhurst, which soon turned out to be linked to Coats after all.
At first things went smoothly, and most of the staff was allowed to stay on, but by 1912 there were uprisings, and a strike over wage cuts and higher prices in the factory town stores. The workers actually won that time, and it almost certainly led to an ant-trust suit which ended up awarding the Willimantic plant to an American company from New York.
Friday, 26th June 2026
Out final card comes from yet another set by this interesting issuer, namely series 8. But I wonder if anyone can enlighten us on two things - firstly why the continent sets (L`Afrique, L`Amerique du Nord, L`Asie, and L`Europe) are not numbered - secondly whether these came before or after the numbered series - and thirdly does anyone know what the title of set one of the numbered series was?
Weather has always been fascinating, and this is a similar subject to the card of the day we featured earlier this week, on Tuesday, 23rd June, the Peter, Cailler, Kohler set called "Les Phenomenes de la Nature", but in this case the tree has yet to be struck.
And hopefully the farmer is not too far from home, he can speed up, or run back.
The cards in this set, or eleven of them, anyway, are :
- Cataracte
- Geyser
- La Comete
- La Foudre
- L`Arc-en-Ciel
- La Trombe
- L`Aurore Boreale
- L`Avalanche
- Le Glacier
- Le Volcan
- Tremblement de Terre
If anyone knows the twelfth, please let us know!
So there you go. It's Saturday, now, about half past six in the evening - and I am only waiting to insert the final picture.
Best of all, nipper has had a good day, no sickness (etc), and he has kept down three small portions of special gastro-intestinal dog food, bought from the vets. We didn`t go out for a walk today, but maybe tomorrow, just a short one, and he is still a bit tired, but then we spent the morning at our vet and the evening at the animal hospital - we only got in at about eleven last night, and went straight to sleep.
That`s why the newsletter was a bit slow, apologies, and thanks for your patience!