Who You Callin' Yellow?

Well leave it to the old Net54 Vintage Non Sports board to come through, specifically the man in charge Tom Boblitt, who unearthed a yellow 1 denomination piece from the 1949 Play Coins of the World set somewhere in the wilds of the internet. Behold the French franc:



So yellow means 1, to follow my earlier chain.

I have seen some lists that show it possible all 24 countries have a yellow 1 coin; the question is: why are they so scarce when compared to the other colors? I have to think they yellow coins were added as an eye catcher in the bagged package of coins offered by Topps in 1950 as they tried to sell through the issue. The yellow coins do not seem to have come in the penny tabs in 1949 but it's very hard to tell over sixty years later how the penny tabs were designed for sale.

The master set of these may total well over 300 coins; the jury is out but it seems entirely possible the metal coated coins from Play Money Pops come in a number of varieties. There's now way to tell without a lot of legwork and I am not inclined to try and track down the metal coins one-by-one but if you look at the referenced Net54 thread, you will see why there are so many possibilities.

I do think there are at least 216 in the master set, 24 of each type: 144 plastic (yellow, green, blue,red, silver, gold) and 72 metal (copper, silver, gold).

Get It In Writing

Well it's official, the scanner here at the Topps Archives Research Center has officially given up the ghost. So it's back to plumbing the depth's of the ol' hard drive for the next week or so, until a new machine gets purchased and installed. It's not all for naught though as this will give me a chance to show some very vintage material that will segue nicely, one hopes, into an upcoming article I have in The Wrapper that delves into the Topps backstory (more on that as we get closer to publication kids).

Once again, here's some scans provided by Friend o'the Archive Jeff Shepherd, this time of some very early Topps Chewing Gum Stationery that shows just how little money was being dealt with right around the start of World War 2.



Yes, 38 cents for 1 box of 100 tabs of gum from Topps in 1940! It was all about volume of course but that type of figure was quite common at the time. That Abram Shorin signature by the way, looks secretarial to me and not of his hand.

Mr. Leighton, of Wiscasset, Maine did not not act quickly enough and just over a year later the price had gone up by a penny:



Like his brother's, that Philip Shorin scrawl was most likely penned by someone from the steno pool. Things were looking up though, as Topp's paid the freight on orders of 150 boxes or more. I am not sure why they were unincorporated at this time, after having been a true corporation just a year earlier. Fodder for another post!

The gum tabs were not something being marketed to kids just yet. The vending machine trade referred to in the correspondence was primarily focused on taverns and tobacconists as the primary selling point of Topps Gum in 1940 would have been to mask the offending odors of liquor and smoke on a gentleman's breath before he trundled on home to the missus. There were also very utilitarian point of sale displays being used. You can get a good idea of the type of display the gum was being sold out of by looking at the graphic on this Topps envelope:



There was another counter display that I'll get into another time that was much smaller, just a little tub, but the vending machines and open displays of the 1940's were meant for counter-tops primarily. These small vending machines are sometimes referred to as column vendors:



Now, I am not certain if the little gum tabs that had cards inserted were sold in tubs or just in column vendors and in columnar displays. It seems like the cards would fall out if they were just loose in a tub.

Here's the back of the envelope to close things out tonight-note the Christmas Seal:

It's A Marshmallow World

"Mairzy Doats" was a hugely popular song that became a national sensation after it was recorded in late 1943 by Al Trace and his Silly Symphonists. You can read more about the song here but its release date helps us date another candy bar produced by Topp's' southern plant in Chattanooga.

Friend o'the Archive Jeff Shepherd was kind enough to send along a wrapper scan of the very odd looking Mairzy bar:



In addition to very possibly being the most heinous candy bar wrapper ever devised, malted bran kernels and marshmallow do not exactly bring to mind lip smacking goodness. No matter, marshmallow was a wise choice for a product in 1944, when I presume this bar came out in the wake of the song's popularity. Marshmallow requires far less sugar than ordinary candy filling and products using the air filled morsels would have stretched the scarce supply available for manufacture during World War 2.

I doubt the bar lasted much beyond the end of the war but who knows? Candy bar wrappers of the period seem far harder to locate these days than gum wrappers so it's hard to get a true read.

What's Opera?

In addition to their popular "Changemaker" gum, in the early 1940's Topps also sold a candy bar dubbed Opera, which was a chocolate covered marshmallow confection. The origin of the name is a little murky as there was a much older product with the same name that featured two flavored fondant fillings but whatever its beginnings it was one of the first Topps products.

In anticipation of World War 2 sugar quotas, Topps began buying smaller candy companies and, as the story goes, began shutting them down and keeping their upcoming alltoments. However, in 1943 Topps bought a company called Bennett-Hubbard in Chattanooga, Tennessee and decided to keep their plant running to make candy.

Here's a wrapper from what might be their first confection made in the Chattanooga
plant:



I nicked that scan from the awesome Candy Wrapper Archive by the way. I originally though the wrapper below came first but the black bar at the upper left would have been utilized by a later cutting technology I believe:


(Courtesy of Jeff Shepherd)

Topps closed the Chattanooga plant, which only made candy, in the early 1950's and the The Opera bar does not seem to have survived any much longer either. I have to say it looks like it might have been pretty tasty!

Spit n' Shine

Well, I wasn't sure it was inevitable but the two missing "small" 1955 Hocus Focus baseball cards have surfaced and fetched an amazing price on Ebay. Hal Smith and Mel Parnell just fetch $2,247.00 as a pair. Not bad considering their condition is ragtag even for this set.





Previously, it has been speculated the two missing cards as part of the series of 23 Baseball Stars replicated the sequence found in the larger cards and their series of 18. These two players confirm that is indeed the case.

While I have not visually confirmed the existence of each of the small Hocus Focus cards, Bob Lemke has confidence in the Standard Catalog list. However, I have only been able to confirm eight visually and as I found out with the larger 56's (they are not really from that year, it's just easier to ID them that way), many cards have been mixed up in the checklisting of the two sets.. I will offer that caveat and hope the Baseball Stars Series of 23 checklist is like so, subset numbers only shown and the cards I have seen marked with an asterisk:

1 Babe Ruth
2 Lou Gehrig
3 Dick Groat *
4 Ed Lopat
5 Hank Sauer
6 Dusty Rhodes
7 Ted Williams
8 Harvey Haddix
9 Ray Boone
10 Al Rosen
11 Mayo Smith *
12 Warren Spahn
13 Jim Rivera
14 Ted Kluszewski
15 Gus Zernial
16 Jackie Robinson *
17 Hal Smith *
18 Johnny Schmitz *
19 Wally Moon *
20 Karl Spooner
21 Ed Matthews
22 Spook Jacobs *
23 Mel Parnell *

I once thought it possible not all of the small HF cards were issued but the completion of the baseball subset checklist seems to indicate otherwise, especially since it''s the biggest subset. While each subset series in the larger cards has five less in number than their smaller siblings for the subsets that are known, I believe it highly likely the uncut sheet array is 126, which means two of the subsets match the corresponding ones from '56 in number and the rest have the five additional, if I am correct. Which subsets are mirrors of the 56 subsets though, I don't yet know. These are very, very hard to find cards!

There is more on the two new additions to the checklist over at Bob Lemke's blog.

Position Paper

Well, the discovery of the Mickey Mantle variation in the 1967 Punch Out set has rendered a good portion of my last post obsolete as it turns out. I was going to go back and edit the previous post a little to avoid confusion but I finally decided against it. I think the mysteries of this set can finally be sussed out though.

I was right that there is a common divisor with the set but it's not 3 or 9 or 22. Nope, it's clear now that it's good old 5 & 10. It's also clear that a meticulously thought out set was disrupted by events after the end of the 1966 baseball season.

Let's take another count of Captains: 14 are known with a single lineup, 40 with two, 26 with three and 6 with four. 86 players and 90 poses in all. Let's also look at what I called the 66'ers last time out, i.e. players who retired or changed teams after the 1966 season as the player's team at the end of play is what is reflected in the set.

66'ers? There are six: Clete Boyer, Don Lock, Floyd Robinson and John Romano from the AL, all of whom would be in the NL for '67, Sandy Koufax, and one more, who we'll get around to in a second.

After I thought there had to be 198 lineups to make the math work for the set, I did a survey of each player's position. What I found out was that most positions proved out to 10 players per, with 30 Outfielders as no LCR distinction was made by Topps. Additionally, it looked an even split for AL and NL players at each position but I was missing four: 2 Shortstops, a 3rd baseman and a pitcher. Since only 86 subjects are known this made a lot of sense but 90 cards would have to comprise a full set with even distribution. So, I took a closer look at the phantoms to see what was up with that.

One, Jerry Grote, a catcher for the Mets, was at a position that proved out to 10 players, so it seems he really was a no-print. His inclusion in the Standard Catalog checklist means he must have been mistaken for Dick Groat along the way (by moi). This leaves four players, all rumored to be in the set but never seen as Captains and all of whom appear in lineups: Brooks Robinson, clearly a 3rd baseman, Bob Gibson, obviously a pitcher, Bert Campaneris, a full time shortstop by 1966 and Roy McMillan, also a shortstop. Four holes filled perfectly, even down the the AL and NL split (2 of each)! Let's call these guys the Phantoms for real now.

The omission of McMillan is the easiest one of the 66'ers to explain as he was released by the Mets on October 17th, 1966. This also helps with the timeline as does the November 18th retirement of Sandy Koufax, who is a two-lineup Captain. Other than McMillan, who retired early enough to have his picture pulled from the set but not his lineup spot, and Koufax, who retired late enough to still be included as a Captain, the other four 66'ers were traded from the AL to the NL. In order: Clete Boyer went from the Yankees to the Braves on November 29th, Don Lock from the Senators to the Phillies the next day, Floyd Robinson went for the White Sox to the Reds on December 15th and John Romano also was dealt by the Pale Hose and joined the Cardinals the day before his ex-teammate.

There is no real correlation, save one explained below, between lineup appearances and the 66'ers as the traded players were on 3,2,1 and 4 respectively. Where I think the congruity occurs is with the four players having pose variations and the four missing Phantoms. Clearly the four Phantoms were meant to be in the set if they appeared in various lineups but when the 66'ers who retired or were traded after McMillan did had to be dealt with by Topps they were partially wiped out of existence in the set and replaced by the four pose variants, all of whom had significant fame at the time (Matty Alou won the 1966 NL batting crown if you were wondering).

This suggests to me a second print run, with the four pose variants and without three of the four remaining 66'ers; Romano being the exception. I suspect the 66'ers are Phantoms entwined in the complex mechanics of order created by Topps and one affected the other production wise among a small group of Captains. Why these contortions were necessary are a mystery; it's not like Topps included a checklist with the set or a chart detailing the intricate logic of its construction.

Topps likely did not plan for any player to be on more than three lineups but instead of filling holes in a very complicated ordering of the subjects and positions, I think the six players with four lineups were merely run off an extra time to replace the 66'ers. Romano was probably too locked in to too many lineups to be pulled so he was given an extra print. I may be running around in circles but I think this means one more pose variation is yet to be uncovered as one of the Phantoms is also a 66'er and it seems like one hole would remain otherwise. Perhaps alleged cropping differences are also due to a second print run.

This rejiggering also led to some production problems I think. This Groat card has Matty appearing twice in the lineup:



I'm sure that was supposed to be Felipe-too bad Jesus wasn't around! Actually, the Frank Robinson Orioles cap variation has Brooks and Floyd in the lineup; all three Robinson's on one card. Check it out.

I am going to leave off with team checklists for the set. Even though teams are not given on the cards, a player's team at the end of 1966 clearly controlled content so you can consider this list definitive for the 86 known subjects (No Prints are not shown):

FREGOSI	JIM	ANGELS
KNOOP	BOBBY	ANGELS
REICHARDT	RICK	ANGELS
JACKSON	SONNY	ASTROS
MORGAN	JOE	ASTROS
WYNN	JIM	ASTROS
CHARLES	ED	ATHLETICS
GREEN	DICK	ATHLETICS
HERSHBERGER	MIKE	ATHLETICS
AARON	HANK	BRAVES
ALOU	FELIPE	BRAVES
CARTY	RICO	BRAVES
MENKE	DENIS	BRAVES
TORRE	JOE	BRAVES
BROCK	LOU	CARDINALS
CEPEDA	ORLANDO	CARDINALS
FLOOD	CURT	CARDINALS
McCARVER	TIM	CARDINALS
SANTO	RON	CUBS
WILLIAMS	BILLY	CUBS
DAVIS	WILLIE	DODGERS
KOUFAX	SANDY	DODGERS
LEFEBVRE	JIM	DODGERS
ROSEBORO	JOHN	DODGERS
HALLER	TOM	GIANTS
HART	JIM RAY	GIANTS
MARICHAL	JUAN	GIANTS
MAYS	WILLIE	GIANTS
MCCOVEY	WILLIE	GIANTS
PERRY	GAYLORD	GIANTS
ALVIS	MAX	INDIANS
COLAVITO	ROCKY	INDIANS
SALMON	CHICO	INDIANS
SIEBERT	SONNY	INDIANS
WAGNER	LEON	INDIANS
WHITFIELD	FRED	INDIANS
BOYER	KEN	METS
HUNT	RON	METS
JONES	CLEON	METS
KRANEPOOL	ED	METS
APARICIO	LUIS	ORIOLES
BARBER	STEVE	ORIOLES
ETCHEBARREN	ANDY	ORIOLES
POWELL	BOOG	ORIOLES
ROBINSON	FRANK (2)	ORIOLES
SNYDER	RUSS	ORIOLES
ALLEN	RICHIE	PHILLIES
BUNNING	JIM	PHILLIES
CALLISON	JOHNNY	PHILLIES
GROAT	DICK	PHILLIES
WHITE	BILL	PHILLIES
ALLEY	GENE	PIRATES
ALOU	MATTY (2)	PIRATES
CLEMENTE	ROBERTO (2)	PIRATES
CLENDENON	DONN	PIRATES
MAZEROSKI	BILL	PIRATES
STARGELL	WILLIE	PIRATES
CONIGLIARO	TONY	RED SOX
SCOTT	GEORGE	RED SOX
YASTRZEMSKI	CARL	RED SOX
CARDENAS	LEO	REDS
EDWARDS	JOHNNY	REDS
PINSON	VADA	REDS
ROSE	PETE	REDS
HOWARD	FRANK	SENATORS
LOCK	DON	SENATORS
CASH	NORM	TIGERS
FREEHAN	BILL	TIGERS
KALINE	AL	TIGERS
LUMPE	JERRY	TIGERS
McAULIFFE	DICK	TIGERS
McLAIN	DENNY	TIGERS
BATTEY	EARL	TWINS
KAAT	JIM	TWINS
KILLEBREW	HARMON	TWINS
OLIVA	TONY	TWINS
TOVAR	CESAR	TWINS
VERSALLES	ZOILO	TWINS
ROBINSON	FLOYD	WHITE SOX
ROMANO	JOHN	WHITE SOX
BOYER	CLETE	YANKEES
HOWARD	ELSTON	YANKEES
MANTLE	MICKEY (2)	YANKEES
PEPITONE	JOE	YANKEES
STOTTLEMYRE	MEL	YANKEES
TRESH	TOM	YANKEES

I will probably have a little more to say on this set-still thinking things through a bit but we'll see!

New New Developments (Blue Sky Version)

Oh it has been an eventful 2011 already on the Topps front. Not only has Friend o'the Archive Al Richter set us straight on the five cent Magic Photo nickel packs featured in the previous post, but he has also righted the Standard Catalog listing for the 1967 Punch-Outs.

The latest 1967 Punch-Out story revolves around a variation of the Mickey Mantle card. I'll not vulture the scans or main narrative, you can see what's what over at Bob Lemke's blog as Al is a friend O'that blog too but it turns out the Mick either has a view of Yankee Stadium behind his head or a bit of sky instead.

As expected the lineups on each differ as well, so we have to update the huge count of players and different lineups like so, noting that Mantle becoming a three lineup player is not a surprise to me at all as it matches all the other pose variations in count:

LAST	FIRST	LINEUPS	NOTE
AARON	HANK	2
ALLEN	RICHIE	3
ALLEY	GENE	2
ALOU	FELIPE	2
ALOU	MATTY	3	2 POSES
ALVIS	MAX	3
APARICIO	LUIS	4
BARBER	STEVE	2
BATTEY	EARL	3
BOYER	CLETE	3
BOYER	KEN	3
BROCK	LOU	2
BUNNING	JIM	1
CALLISON	JOHNNY	2
CAMPANERIS	BERT	DELETED
CARDENAS	LEO	3
CARTY	RICO	2
CASH	NORM	3
CEPEDA	ORLANDO	4
CHARLES	ED	1
CLEMENTE	ROBERTO	3	2 POSES
CLENDENON	DONN	2
COLAVITO	ROCKY	1
CONIGLIARO	TONY	2
DAVIS	WILLIE	2
EDWARDS	JOHNNY	2
ETCHEBARREN	ANDY	2
FLOOD	CURT	2
FREEHAN	BILL	1
FREGOSI	JIM	2
GIBSON	BOB	DELETED
GREEN	DICK	3
GROAT	DICK	3
GROTE	JERRY	DELETED
HALLER	TOM	2
HART	JIM RAY	2
HERSHBERGER	MIKE	4
HOWARD	ELSTON	3
HOWARD	FRANK	4
HUNT	RON	3
JACKSON	SONNY	1
JONES	CLEON	2
KAAT	JIM	2
KALINE	AL	2
KILLEBREW	HARMON	3
KNOOP	BOBBY	3
KOUFAX	SANDY	2
KRANEPOOL	ED	2
LEFEBVRE	JIM	2
LOCK	DON	2
LUMPE	JERRY	1
MANTLE	MICKEY	3	2 POSES
MARICHAL	JUAN	2
MAYS	WILLIE	3
MAZEROSKI	BILL	2
McAULIFFE	DICK	1
McCARVER	TIM	3
MCCOVEY	WILLIE	1
McLAIN	DENNY	2
McMILLAN	ROY	DELETED
MENKE	DENIS	2
MORGAN	JOE	2
OLIVA	TONY	2
PEPITONE	JOE	2
PERRY	GAYLORD	1
PINSON	VADA	2
POWELL	BOOG	4
REICHARDT	RICK	1
ROBINSON	BROOKS	DELETED
ROBINSON	FLOYD	1
ROBINSON	FRANK	3	2 POSES
ROMANO	JOHN	4
ROSE	PETE	2
ROSEBORO	JOHN	1
SALMON	CHICO	2
SANTO	RON	2
SCOTT	GEORGE	3
SIEBERT	SONNY	1
SNYDER	RUSS	3
STARGELL	WILLIE	3
STOTTLEMYRE	MEL	2
TORRE	JOE	2
TOVAR	CESAR	2
TRESH	TOM	2
VERSALLES	ZOILO	1
WAGNER	LEON	2
WHITE	BILL	3
WHITFIELD	FRED	3
WILLIAMS	BILLY	2
WYNN	JIM	3
YASTRZEMSKI	CARL	3
	TOTAL	196

If you are keeping track there are 14 Team Captains known with a single lineup, 40 with two, 26 with three and 6 with four. 86 players and 90 poses in all.

There are now four pose variations known: Frank Robinson with airbrushed cap or Orioles chapeau, Matty Alou facing left or right, Mickey Mantle with Stadium or Sky in the background and Roberto Clemente with a slice of stadium behind him, or not. These all are three lineup players which is reflected in the lineup counts above. There are also allegedly cropping differences in some of the Team Captain photos, good look analyzing those out there in Punch-Out land!

Cards shown above as DELETED are being pulled from the Standard Catalog checklist as they are seemingly non-issued but interestingly, Brooks Robinson appears in the lineup of the Frank Robinson variation (Orioles cap version) and from what I have seen if you are in the lineup you are in the game (applies in the real world too). Bert Campaneris and Bob Gibson also show up in lineups.

From what I can determine, five players would have been pulled due their circumstances changing after the 1966 season ended, let's call them the 66'ers. One was lost to retirement (Koufax, a NL Captain) and four (Clete Boyer, Don Lock, Floyd Robinson and John Romano, all AL Captains) changed leagues. The fact that there are five deleted players and five 66'ers is quite interesting. Three of them match on positions with the 66'ers, deleted player shown last: Catcher: John Romano/Jerry Grote; Third Base: Clete Boyer/Brooks Robinson and Pitcher: Sandy Koufax/Bob Gibson. Grote is the only one of these three I have not seen in a lineup but I really wonder why he was not in the set since he was a regular, unless a team oriented structure was in effect.

Deleted players Campaneris and McMillan were shortstops though I have only seen Campy in a lineup. Don Lock and Floyd Robinson were outfielders and yes, I am going to do a position and team analysis next time out. So assuming lineup appearance equals Captaincy, Brooks Robinson, Bob Gibson and Bert Campaneris should all have their mugs atop one of these bad boys.

I am thinking though, that whatever the final count of lineups is, it should be divisible by 9. 196 is not but 198 is (22 x 9). Additionally, since a strip of three has three lineups not shared with any other strips of three, the total of all lineups should be divisible by three. Once again, 196 is not but 198 is.

Also, it takes three groups of 66, likely formed in iterations of 22, to make it to 198 and it has bothered me that we were getting 65 with some previous calculations since when you run 65 out to 195 lineups, that figure is not divisible by 9. Finally, it seems there should be an equal division of AL and NL cards, so 66 is better that 65 in that regard and if you add two players to the overall count of 86 known, you get 88, a number that works with iterations of 22.

If you add Campaneris, Gibson and Brooks Robinson as Captains then I think we are still missing one or two Captains (one or both likely a pitcher) and two lineups when all is said an done but I may correct myself by the weekend.

With this staring me in the face and since I'm obsessed with this type of thing, I decided to start counting groupings. The single lineup players in the set did not neatly sort into obvious groups and the four lineup players did not either but then I started counting pitchers and found there are only nine confirmed in the set: Barber, Bunning, Kaat, Koufax, Marichal, McLain, Gaylord Perry, Siebert and Stottlemyre plus a tenth, Gibson, who appears as a pitcher on at least one lineup.

There should be an equal distribution of pitchers across leagues but there are five known from the AL and four from the NL. So one mystery pitcher that comes to mind is Bob Gibson. If we assume he is in the set, we are at 5/5 on pitchers across both leagues but Gibby would replace Koufax in this scenario, leaving us unbalanced. Steve Barber was essentially injured the latter half of 1966 and I wonder if he was added for the second run of the set.

That would however, match my guesstimate that there were originally supposed to be five position players per position per league (15 outfielders per circuit) yielding a planned total of 45 subjects in each league, or 90 Captains. If we assume instead there were only four pitchers per league planned, we get 88 total Captaincy's and we divide by 3, 9 and 22 if you work it out.

I am going to breathe deeply, run the position and team analyses and revert back on this mess. I may have to allow for World Series participation bias to boot. Dang!

Here is an attached strip of three blurry Punch-Outs for your viewing pleasure, which reflects how I feel at this point:

New Developments

Well a new year brings a look back at an old one. Yes, it's 1949 all over again and I have to confess it is becoming my favorite year of study when it comes to Topps. Actually, there is a wee bit of 1948 involved too I think.

Friend o'the Archive Al Richter has sent a few photocopies along detailing the five cent Magic Photos Pack and it's contents. We've already seen the panel of six magic photos that came in the pack but I've never had color scans of the packaging and contents, so here goes.

The front of the wrapper essentially replicates the penny pack graphics:



As we know, the term "color" referred to the gum and not the cards! The back is all kinds of wonderful:



You have an ad for the album, a nice Bubbles Inc. reference showing a scarce Manhattan mailing address on a Topps product (not unheard of but unusual and short-lived, especially this one) and a nice 1948 Copyright. Magic Photos were, as all of us Archivists here know, the subject of a November 1948 Topps price list and while a product's copyright date can precede the actual issuance of same by a year, or sometimes two, I think, with about 90% certainty) we are looking at a 1948 date for the first series of Magic Photos, which could mean they were indeed the first Topps cards.

The instruction card reveals what could be considered an alternate name for the set, Quiz Cards:



the back is standard gray cardboard:



The Mystery Paper looks more like a slab of gum but it's the final step in the developing process so it ain't chewable bub:



I am truly sorry I cannot show the different colored slabs of gum, perhaps some day......