By any measure, the 1932 U.S. Caramel Presidents set is one of the most popular from the 1930's by collectors today and likely was one of the more popular sets of the day. U.S. Presidents are some of the most frequently seen subjects on cards from all era's of the 1880's through today. Whether it's the N51 Allen & Ginter Presidents set on albumen card stock or the N346 Between the Acts chromolithograph set or the "W" strip cards of the 1920's, kids of all eras collected the cards and assembled sets of presidents. Whether it was the first 20 or 22 or 30 presidents, the sets generally contained all the subjects through the date of manufacture.

The 1932 U.S. Caramel Presidents were no exception to the above rules. U.S. Caramel was one of the many candy companies in the Boston, Massachusetts area of the 1930's and, like many of the others, inserted cards in their gum products to help them sell. Imagine the excitement that kids in 1932 felt opening packages of the Presidents seeing them pop in solid Orange, Red or Blue background colors. The backs of the unnumbered cards had a short biographical sketch of the pictured president and noted that the set was a series of 31 pictures of Our Presidents. It also noted that by saving all 31 pictures and returning them to the U.S. Caramel Company in Boston, Massachusetts, the sender could get a one pound box of assorted chocolates for FREE. If there's one thing that kids like more than gum, it could very well be chocolates. An offer to get a whole pound of chocolates had to be an extremely tempting one for any child in 1932. A one dollar box of chocolates was an expensive luxury that probably few children could afford. Many could afford a penny here and there for a pack of gum with a president card in it though. So, by saving a few cards, they could parlay that into a free pound of chocolates. What a deal!

Imagine their suprise, however, that after buying pack after pack, saving and counting their cards, they could never get above 30 different subjects in the series. Many of the kids probably made checklists or found school books with lists of the presidents to see which one they were missing. Lincoln.....check, Washington......check, both Adams cards.....check. They had the first presidents and they had the current president--Franklin D. Roosevelt--the 32nd president of the U.S. and newly elected on November 8, 1932. After checking and rechecking, every kid wound up missing the same president--William McKinley. McKinley was the 25th U.S. President and was our third president to be assassinated while in office in September of 1901. Check the stack again, maybe it's there. Nope. No McKinley. But why McKinley?

Savvy kids or parents probably figured out that the offer for a FREE assorted box of chocolates meant that the U.S. Caramel Company would be out of business if every kid collecting their cards from their gum products could send in 31 cards for the redemption. To limit the amount of sets that were redeemed, U.S. Caramel had to pick a president and print less cards of that subject. By doing this, they could also ensure that kids would keep buying packs to try to find that last, missing card. The different color variations were interesting--but probably less so then than they are today. The 31 subjects were what was important. And...the elusive box of chocolates.

There were, however, some lucky kids who found that elusive McKinley. To date, PSA and SGC have graded a total of (7) cards. One of those cards, a generously graded SGC5 is the only known unpunched version of the card. It was found on eBay and ultimately sold at auction in 2014 for $96,000 with the hammer. The other (3) known SGC-graded cards are all graded 1's due to the cancellation punches and back stamps. Of the (3) PSA has graded, (2) are graded Authentic with the 3rd graded as a 1Q. We may never know how many were actually out there but it appears that U.S. Caramel did not want to have to distribute much chocolate on this campaign.

This lot contains a complete 31 card set with the elusive William McKinley card. It is, from available research, only the second cancelled set to be sold in the last 10+ years. The last set sold at auction for $48,000 with hammer in 2017. The McKinley card is only available in the orange background color and this one is graded an SGC1 due to the punches and back stamps. This is, to our knowledge, the only complete set with both the 'Cancelled' and 'Candy Paid' back stamps applied to each card in the set. The majority of cancelled cards we have seen just have 'Cancelled' on the back as was the case with the other set that sold in 2017.  In addition, the McKinley card in this set is centered slightly better than the one in the previous set.

The grading composite on the set breaks down as follows: SGC1 (2 cards: Buchanan and McKinley), SGC1.5 (3 cards: Cleveland, Coolidge and Monroe) and SGC2 (26 cards: J. Adams, J.Q. Adams, Arthur, Fillmore, Garfield, Grant, Harding, B. Harrison, W.H. Harrison, Hayes, Hoover, Jackson, Jefferson, Johnson, Lincoln, Madison, Pierce, Polk, F.D. Roosevelt, T. Roosevelt, Taft, Taylor, Tyler, Van Buren, Washington, Wilson). Inexplicably, SGC chose to grade the cards in the SGC2 holders taking into consideration the back stamps on the cards. This is inconsistent in regards to what they did with the other set that sold in 2017 which, regardless of the back stamps, achieved grades commensurate with their actual condition. Cards graded as high as SGC84 exist in that set. In addition, another SGC60 (or SGC5) exists for a back-stamped, cancelled card outside of this and the other complete set. The cards graded as 2, in almost all cases, would normally be in SGC5 to SGC7 condition.

The color composition of the set is as follows: BLUE (3 cards: Buchanan, Grant and Tyler), ORANGE (16 cards: J. Adams, Cleveland, Fillmore, Garfield, Harding, W.H. Harrison, Hayes, Jefferson, Johnson, Madison, McKinley, F.D. Roosevelt, T. Roosevelt, Taylor, Washington and Wilson) and RED (12 cards: J.Q. Adams, Arthur, Coolidge, B. Harrison, Hoover, Jackson, Lincoln, Monroe, Pierce, Polk, Taft and Van Buren)

*** There is a fair reserve on this set to protect the investment of the consignor ***

Interestingly, the McKinley (2 punches) and Buchanan (1 punch) are the only two cards punched in the set which mirror the only two cards punched in the 2017 set that sold. That McKinley had a single punch, however, and this one has a pair of punches.

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