[oaks1912]

Bruce...I'll take the liberty of expanding on one critical part of Robert Weisberg's article that has not been shared with the public in more than 38 years. How they were distributed. According to Weisberg's article, he acquired a large group from a man who grew up in Richmond , Virginia, and had collected them as a youth. According to the original collector, one large card was included in each shipping case of Old Mill cigarettes, he recalls 60 packs to the case. He surmised that most were probably thrown out by store owners when the cases were opened. In this specific collection, 17 cards were included, all of which were from the Virginia League. By the time Lew Lipset compiled research for his 20th Century Tobacco card Encyclopedia, less than a decade later, the checklist had expanded to 28 players and some of those being from other series (beyond Virginia League). A quick glance at a recent SCD checklist shows 37 currently documented. Another factor is that some of the subjects in the "Cabinet" checklist are not known as insert cards in the T-210 issue. Any speculation as to which players / series were included is just that ; speculation. The cards are quite difficult to find, but more than one collector has multiple examples in their collection.