Auction #20 - June 2025

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This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 7/13/2025

The tobacco card sets of the 1880’s were some of the best chromolithography extant during the era. The cards were often paired with Albums and Banners as companion pieces. These were expensive for the time—requiring 50/75/100 or more tobacco coupons to obtain an album or banner plus some nominal fee as well. These requirements were well beyond the common man’s abilities in the 1880’s, so, while you see a lot of insert cards, albums and banners aren’t that plentiful. As such, they command good prices—although not as much as you would think given their scarcity in relation to the cards.

The American Card Catalog lists albums with the classification of “A” with numbers A1-A75. The Allen & Ginter are first with Duke, Goodwin, Kimball, Kinney and others following. The king of the albums is the A35 Goodwin round baseball album—routinely bringing in the $10,000+ range. Many of the albums are so much scarcer than what their value belies.


This lot of (32) albums are in varied conditions from Poor to EX and cover albums from many different manufacturers covering many different companies and also include Coffee albums. The breakdown on the album lot is as follows: ?

• A1. Allen & Ginter American Editors in Fair condition
• A2. Allen & Ginter Celebrated American Indian Chiefs Album in Fair/Good condition
• A3. Allen & Ginter Birds of America Album in VG to VGEX condition
• A4. Allen & Ginter Birds of the Tropics Album in GVG to VG condition
• A5. Allen & Ginter City Flags Album in Good condition
• A6. Allen & Ginter World’s Decorations in VGEX to EX condition
• A7. Allen & Ginter Fish From American Waters in GVG to VG condition
• A9. Allen & Ginter Game Birds of America in Good to GVG condition
• A9. Allen & Ginter Game Birds of America in Poor condition (missing both covers)
• A10. Allen & Ginter General Government Buildings in Poor/Fair condition
• A11. Allen & Ginter Quadrupeds Album in GVG to VG condition
• A13. Allen & Ginter Song Birds of the World in VG to VGEX condition
• A16. Allen & Ginter World’s Champions Album in Fair/Good condition
• A18. Allen & Ginter World’s Racers in VG to VGEX condition
• A20. Allen & Ginter George Washington Album in GVG to VG condition
• A21. Allen & Ginter Napoleon Album in VGEX to EX condition
• A23. Allen & Ginter Paris Exhibition Album in Fair condition
• A24. Allen & Ginter With the Poets in Smokeland in Fair/Good condition
• A26. Duke’s Costumes of All Nations Album in GVG to VG conditions
• A27. Duke’s Governor’s, Coats of Arms in GVG to VG condition
• A28. Duke’s Heroes of the Civil War in Fair condition (back cover issues)
• A29. Duke’s Postage Stamp Album in Good to GVG condition
• A30. Duke’s Rulers, Flags, Coats of Arms album in Fair/Good condition
• A31. Duke’s Shadows in VG to VGEX condition
• A32. Duke’s Sporting Girls 1/2 album in EX condition (front half)
• A34. Duke’s Yacht Club Colors album in Poor/Fair condition
• A37. Goodwin Floral Album in GVG to VG condition
• A42. Kimball Champions of Sports and Games Album in Good condition
• A60. Kinney Liberty Album in VGEX to EX condition
• A70. Buchner Defenders and Offenders Album in Fair/Good condition
• K15. Arbuckle’s Coffee Illustrated Atlas of (50) Principle Nations in VG to VGEX condition
• G151. It’s all in the Draw Poker Album in Good to VG condition

This lot represents a substantial portion of ALL of the tobacco albums issued. With the majority of Allen & Ginter and Duke’s albums covered and some key albums including World’s Champions and Celebrated Indians from Allen & Ginter, Duke’s Sporting Girls and Civil War Heroes, Buchner’s Defenders and Offenders and a couple of non-tobacco albums in the Arbuckle’s Principal Nations and the All in the Draw Poker album. Great lot of these very scarce premiums from the heyday of tobacco cards.