Auction #3 - October 2019
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 10/27/2019
Allen & Ginter is one of the early large scale cigarette manufacturer. As their business developed, they went from tobacco tins to cardboard cigarette packs. Ten cigarettes were issued in the slide and shell type boxes and 20 cigarette packs were issued in two part boxes. Virginia Brights was one of the most popular cigarettes of the 1880's. The slide and shell tobacco packs were two part boxes that held the cigarettes, typically a coupon and a thick cardboard stock trading card of some type to help stiffen the package.
This lot includes a trio of 1880's Allen & Ginter Virginia Bright slide and shell boxes. The boxes like these had a "Crop of" year on them and that typically meant that the packaging was from 3 years later. That is something reading "Crop of 1882" was issued in 1885. The three boxes in this lot are for Crop of 1885, 1886 and 1888. Meaning these boxes were in circulation in 1888, 1889 and 1891. These dates coincide with when the majority of the Allen & Ginter card sets were issued. In fact, these boxes were found, along with a few dozen other boxes, to contain between 800-1000 of the N1-N34 small Allen & Ginter chromolithographed cards. Great lot of (3) boxes that would be a good addition to anyone's collection. The three fall between G and VGEX condition.
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