prewar edjamacation please...

[begsu1013]

can anyone school me on how tobacco cards derived their alphabetical prefixes and numerical successors?

w512, t205/6, t70 etc?

[Leon]

Jefferson Burdick came up with the American Card Catalog and in it he gave all of the designations. It's first iteration came out in 1939 and the last edition, while he was alive, was 1960.

[swarmee]

N - Nineteenth Century cards
T - Twentieth Century cards
V/C - Canadian cards
E - Candy series cards
W - Mostly cards issued in strips
R - Gum cards (like Goudey)

[begsu1013]

very cool.

obviously the "t, n" make perfect sense.

any clue as to what the "w" in the strip card means?

edit: and am I wrong to assume the "e" series is for the last syllable in candy? and any 411 on how the numbers are comprised?

[kailes2872]

what was the reason behind the number? For example, I grew up thinking that the 205's were before the 206's

Also - didn't R mean recent? (which is a tad ironic in retrospect)

[IMAXMAX]

I've always been curious about some the numbering used in the ACC---
say, for instance, what happens between M101 and M116, or between N142 and N162?-------is M102-M115 and N143-N161 designated for non-baseball cards or ???

[spec]

Originally Posted by swarmee

N - Nineteenth Century cards
T - Twentieth Century cards
V/C - Canadian cards
E - Candy series cards
W - Mostly cards issued in strips
R - Gum cards (like Goudey)

Burdick did not use the N prefix for 19th century cards, simply referring to them by number. Burdick's N designation was used for Central and South American cards. The E designation was for Early candy and gum cards, as opposed to R for Recent candy and gum cards. The W category was not short for anything, just a catchall for what he called Album cards.

[Sean]

I thought the "T" was for tobacco.

T206: Tobacco, 20th century, set #6.

[kailes2872]

Originally Posted by Sean

I thought the "T" was for tobacco.

T206: Tobacco, 20th century, set #6.

This would make sense and how I thought it was originally, but didn't the T205's come after the T206's? What about T212's? They wouldn't be 21st century #2 - but it could be 20th century set 12 if they abridged it, I suppose.

[trdcrdkid]

Originally Posted by Sean

I thought the "T" was for tobacco.

T206: Tobacco, 20th century, set #6.

I always thought the T was for Tobacco, though I suppose it could stand for Twentieth-century. The heading for that chapter in my copy of the ACC is "20th Century U.S. Tobacco Insert Cards".

But the "20" in T206 definitely does not stand for "20th century". Burdick designated different spans of numbers for different groups of card sets, sometimes leaving gaps in the numbering for newly discovered sets. Within the T cards, T1-T14 were large cards (including T3 Turkey Red basball); T25-T134 were smaller non-sport cards; T175-T182 were anonymous cards issued on Sweet Caporal box flaps; T200-T235 were smaller sports cards; T301-T309 were novelty inserts; T330=T333 were stamps (including T330-2 and T332 baseball stamps); T350-T352 were imitation cigar bands; and T400-T499 were cards from U.S. tobacco companies issued abroad.

[Leon]

Originally Posted by spec

Burdick did not use the N prefix for 19th century cards, simply referring to them by number. Burdick's N designation was used for Central and South American cards. The E designation was for Early candy and gum cards, as opposed to R for Recent candy and gum cards. The W category was not short for anything, just a catchall for what he called Album cards.

I believe the N designation came from Sugar's, The Sports Collectors Bible, last (4th edition) was 1984. Some other designations came from there too. Then again, we don't know where at least one, and I am sure more, came from. I don't know if these are on the bay now but I would recommend the 4th edition for reading enjoyment. And For anyone that collects pre-war I strongly recommend a copy of the ACC too. They both make invaluable resources.

http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from...Bible&_sacat=0


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