Posted By:
Jon CanfieldRob - I believe Leon is correct in what he says although I would tend to disagree that the relative rarity of the back had to do with the "success or failure" of the brand as Leon's classifies it.
Rather, the rarity of the back has to do with the popularity and distribution area of the brand as opposed to the success of the brand. Sweet Caporal and Piedmont were both widely popularly and widely distributed. Hence, there are a great many more Piedmont and Sweet Caporal backs (even within individual series) than Drum or Broadleaf, which were less popular and were distributed to a smaller area. This isn't to say, however, that Broadleaf and Drum were unsuccessful cigarette brands. In fact, Liggett & Myers continued to manufacture many of the former American Tobacco Company "trust" cigarette brands that L&M was awarded following the 1911 dissolution of the ATC.
By 1918 American Beauty, Broadleaf, Carolina Brights, Coupon, Cycle, Drum, Obak, Old Judge, Old Mill, and Virginia Extra were still made by L&M.
Edited to add: For great reading, I would recommend that you visit Jim Shaw's "Burnt Offerings" website which provides a lot of the geonology of the various brands (both related and unrelated to baseball cards). Of particular note for this conversation, I would check out this page from his site: http://users.ap.net/~burntofferings/packsliggett_duke.html.