Pre-War Cards

‘It’s In The Details’

Title	Aguilitas, Aguilitas Segunda, Aguilitas Cuba Deportiva
Year	1920s
Size	Various
Images	Black and White
Type	Tobacco
Number in Set	2,700 cards (900 per set)

Aguilitas Overview

The Aguilitas series cards were three sets of Cuban cigarette cards. Sports were only a small part of the sets as other subjects, including movie stars, were present, too. It is believed that each set has 900 cards. The sets along with their estimated dates of release are:

• 1924-25 Aguilitas Segunda Serie (2nd series)
• 1926-27 Aguilitas Serie Artistica (1st series)
• 1928 Aguilitas (Cuba Deportiva)

Interestingly enough, the 2nd set is believed to have been produced first.

Of the sports, baseball has the largest number of cards. But American football and basketball were also included in the Cuba Deportiva series, providing some of the earliest known examples of those sports. Several boxers are also presented in the series as well, as are at least a few tennis cards. While not absolutely scarce, in general, cards from the sets are pretty rare.

And while international athletes are generally the focus here, some Americans are included, too. For example, Hall of Fame boxing great Jack Dempsey has at least one card in the 1926-27 set.

The Deportiva set is obviously from 1928 as it is stated on the backs. However, the exact print date of the others is not yet fully confirmed. The Deportiva set also includes only sports cards and the backs also reference an album that was available.

While most athletes will generally be unknown to American collectors, some of them did play here in the United States.

Aguilitas Checklists

The Aguilitas set checklists are still a bit of an unknown. While some cards in the set have been discovered, many have not. Therefore, a complete checklist for the sets does not exist. Here are some details for each set, however.

1924-25 2nd Series

CubanBaseballCards.com has a checklist of the baseball players in this set.

1926-27 1st Series

One of the backs for the Serie Artistica cards outlines the subjects of the 900 cards available in that set as:

1-400 (Artistic Photographs)
401-650 (Theater Artists)
651-750 (Cinema Artists)
751-850 (Athletes)
851-900 (Bataclan)

Here is a checklist of known baseball players.

As stated, checklists for that set and the others are not complete due to rarity of the cards.

1928 Cuba Deportiva

A checklist is not yet known for this issue. VintageBasketball.com, however, has images and numbers of many of the basketball cards in the set.

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