Wednesday, February 10, 2016

1910-11 C56 Imperial Tobacco Set of 36-ish

What's there to say about this 100+ year old set that hasn't already been said? My set isn't in particularly great shape; probably Fair to Good at best. But it sure is beautiful.


There is, however, an incredibly rare #37 Newsy Lalonde card from this set (one is currently up on eBay for the asking price of $180,000):


From the seller (BMW Sportscards): "For over 90 years, the 1910-11 C56 Imperial Tobacco Series of Hockey—the first known hockey set—was thought to be complete at 36 cards. However, after the recent discovery of another, previously unknown card (a second Newsy Lalonde), it is now known to comprise 37 different specimens. This discovery has been discussed on numerous websites and forums and various theories have been given for its existence. The 2007 unearthing of the original lithographic stone used to print the C56 series has provided additional confirmation that 37 cards were originally produced by Imperial Tobacco. This final card is numbered with '37' in the top left corner instead of '36,' but has the same pose of Édouard 'Newsy' Lalonde. The mystery surrounding card #37 remains, however, since speculation is that the card is similar to the T206 Honus Wagner in that it may have been pulled from production early with very few examples ever making it into cigarette packs."

There are only three #37s known to exist. To cloud the picture further, there are two variations of the card. Two cards, including the one pictured above, have commas after the team names on back, while the other does not. For more information about the 1910-11 C56 #37 Newsy Lalonde visit www.c55proofs.com.

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