[rhettyeakley]

These cards have always been a bit of an enigma. I have never really gotten into them (though I may in the future as my Colgan's purchases have been pretty slow lately!). There is no evidence that these were ever actually issued with any Colgan's product (although they could have been.)

There was an issue that are similar in size and everything that featured Confederate Generals (also on really thin stock) made by the Kis-Me gum company. My theory has long been that these "Colgans Proofs" were likely distributed with candy or gum (probably in individual pieces within the wrapper.) I have seen original pieces of Kis-Me gum (and other similar gums from the time period) and they are roughly the size of these little cards and square and came individually wrapped in a parchment paper wrapper.

I had always assumed these were a 1909 or 1910 issue, but recently I saw a Harry Davis card with him listed for Cleveland, a team he only played for in 1912, so that may actually be the date for this particular issue (although there is always the possiblity of a multiple year issue--but these tend to show up fairly infrequently.

-Rhett