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Old 07-11-2017, 08:47 AM
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Dave.Horn.ish
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Sure thing!



Leftmost is 1942 copyright. No copyright on the plainer canister to the right which also has differing subtext under Topps ("Chewing Gum" vs "A Superior Quality Chewing Gum"). This does not correspond to copyrights on the the gum wrappers, which are either 1939 or 1946. The lack of copyright on the plain paper canister is odd, Topps was quite meticulous about their copyrighting. The plain canister also has a different layout of the gum tabs, whereas the two foiled canisters have the same artwork. It could be from Canada as one Topps shield says Made In USA plus the finish is quite dull vs the paper one posted above (it's not faded, just dull). I believe it to be WW2 vintage but that's not certain. There could be another version of this one without the Natural Flavors wording as they had to use artificial flavorings as the war went on. The "Quality" sub text may tie to an ad campaign, see the industry or trade ad at the bottom of this post. There's a 1949 version as well (It's "Refreshing") that I still need and a clear one I've only seen seen on a blurry jobber order sheet that has "Take Your Change In Topps" on a sticker affixed to it.



Leftmost is 1946 copyright and then on the right (obviously) is the Tatoo canister. I think Topps went to square boxes for their one cent counter displays after Tatoo, like the ones used for Magic Photo. These didn't have tops, they came in a separate blue box that also had a little red sign you stuck in the canister:

FYI, for the Topps Gum tabs, you can't tell the year of issue from the fronts as they are all identical, you have to look at the backs of the packs or the indicia on the smaller bottom indicia. There are three main types: 1939 New York City (lots of text), 1939 Brooklyn (different graphics vs NYC version as well), 1946 Brooklyn (matches front except for bottom line of text). That's also the same order of how easy they are to find as 1946 is seen far more often than either of the 39's. Known flavors: Peppermint, Spearmint, Cinnamon, Pepsin and Ginger (which is rare, NYC wrapper only I think and likely replaced by Pepsin). There is also a Fruit wrapper shown in Chris Benjamin's Sport Americana NS guide that I've never actually seen except in his books. Jeff Shepherd thinks it's a Bazooka precursor and if anyone has one I'd like to acquire it, or at least a good color scan.



Killer ad to my mind. Can anyone post variants of the canisters above? I think the plain one that started this thread has different graphics than my plain one but I note it too says Made in USA.

Last edited by toppcat; 07-11-2017 at 02:26 PM.
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