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1880nonsportsI'm no expert on packs but I did stay at a Holiday... wait - nevermind. First of all I'm not sure it's even been proven that the cards actually were inserted into the Pirate packs or that they were in fact distributed (not my area so.....). I also thought that the issue date was determined to be after the ATC breakup but I'm unsure of that as well. I will say that other than larger pouch type packages - cards are not thought to have ever been included in paper packs until the 1950's. I doubt anyone here could name a soft cigarette pack associated with cards or perhaps any pre-atc breakup soft cigarette pack period. I have not seen the sides of the pack Leon has and even so - not sure what I could make of it except to narrow the range by war dates. One exception might be my spectacular Kinney silk pouches from the 1880's but that's a story for another day 
Anyhow there are 2/3 super advanced pack collectors in foreign lands. They might be a resource. I really only casually collect the packs anymore - more interested in accumulating what information I can garner. In any event I have handled and/or examined over a thousand packs for various reasons - not only or even always with an eye on their relationship to cards - as I collect early tobacco primarily as art. I will make note here that I have never owned or even seen pre-1917 packs with rice paper or onion skin wraps. I know a find of the Piedmont packs were found in the mid-1990's that were being sold as containing cards that I THINK was supposed to be wrapped that way. If one were really interested a start might be the patent office records. Leon if you can feel around on all four sides and feel a distinctly seperate entity - I'd suggest not opening it BTW besides a bird or chinese character card - it might be an advertising insert. Sorry for rambling...