1934 V94 O-Pee-Chee / Canadian Butterfinger Set

Posted on September 6, 2016 by Pre-War Cards

‘It’s In The Details’

Title	V94 O-Pee-Chee / Canadian Butterfinger
Year	1933/1934
Size	6 1/2″ x 8 1/2″
Images	Sepia
Type	Canadian
Number in Set	56 (?)

1934 V94 O-Pee-Chee / Canadian Butterfinger Overview

The V94 O-Pee-Chee set is often considered to be the Canadian counterpart to the United States’ R310 Butterfinger version. For that reason, the set is sometimes referred to as the Canadian Butterfinger set. However, the set was actually produced by O-Pee-Chee. The set is credited by some as a 1933 issue while it is mostly called a 1934 set by others.

It should be noted, however, that Jefferson Burdick classified this set as a William Paterson, Ltd. issue in the American Card Catalog. Little was known about the issue at the time he compiled his catalog — at the time, he knew of only 22 photos in the set.

These were sepia-toned photograph premiums issued by O-Pee-Chee. The photos are incredibly fragile and printed only on a regular paper stock.

Images were the same from the R310 issue. However, the Canadian set is not as large in terms of size. The U.S. version of the photos is nearly 8″ wide by 10″ tall. The Canadian set, too, does not include as many different known photos as the American issue.

Many issues have been discovered since Jefferson Burdick’s initial reporting in the American Card Catalog, though. At the time of printing, Burdick identified only 22 photos in the set. Today, we know of nearly 60.

1934 V94 O-Pee-Chee / Canadian Butterfinger Checklist

Today, collectors are conflicted as to how many photos exist in the set.

59 is often the number reported. However, a more possible number may be 56. As stated in this auction listing, the inclusion of Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig has been debated. Another source of contention is if Jimmie Foxx has both error and corrected versions. To date, only the corrected version has been seen recently.

Because of that, I have listed those three photos in the checklist with the caveat that they may not exist.