Posted By:
leonI have to agree with you that these Contentnea factory #'s were handstamps but I think they were done by workers at the factory and then inserted into cigarette packs. Maybe the packs didn't have the factory # on them so they put them on the cards? I have only seen a few packs of Contentnea and don't remember if they had factory numbers or not...and even if they did there might have been packs that didn't have them too. Just a guess on that. As for the darn D355's I agree with you. Unfortunately, in my book whatever Burdick said is the gospel in collecting. I would correlate it to the English language and vocabulary. Sometimes they don't make sense at all but we don't change them. We live with them. I know others have different opinions and that's ok too. I agree about the Old Puts also. I think they were put on at a cigar store and given away at the Point of Sale to advertise the brand. Fascinating to think a candy card became a tobacco card in that regard. As for E94 Overprints I never miss a photo opportunity (see below). However, I do think there were only 2 different advertisers and one was Blomes and the other was "The George Close Company." All of the ones that aren't Blomes are different kinds of candy but the same mfg. Another tidbit of worthless info...Seven of the ones I have are pictured in Lew Lipset's encyclopedia and are the exact ones in it as they come from his collection..When they were originally collected, I guess in the 70's or early 80's, they were probably valued at $5-$10 ea....(sorry for hijacking the thread too...but I don't think it was in a bad way).....regards
