1921 Koester Bread (D383) Set and Checklist

‘It’s In The Details’

Title Koester Bread (D383)
Year 1921
Size 2″ x 3 1/4″
Images Black and White
Type Bakery
Number in Set
52

1921 Koester Bread (D383) Overview

Jennings Koester Bread.jpg

The 1921 Koester Bread (D383) set is a black and white issue resembling the W575-1 blank-backed set.

The card designs are the same as those and, in the cases of players found in both sets, the same pictures are used. A player image takes up most of the space on the fronts and a white border surrounds it on all sides. The bottom, in the border space, includes the name of the player, his position, and team. No card number is printed and the backs of the cards are entirely blank.

The most unique aspect of the card, perhaps, is that it is entirely a New York issue. The cards were printed for New York-based Koester Bread and players in the set are either members of the Yankees or Giants. The set was possibly created as part of a promotion surrounding the 1921 World Series, which included both of those teams.

Two different types of Koester cards actually exist. One are thicker cards that were hand-cut from an advertising poster (one seen here was sold here for nearly $5,000). A second type are actual cards that were printed on thinner stock and believed to be included inside of the company’s bread products.

In general, because the hand-cut issues were only from an advertising poster, they aren’t really ‘genuine’ cards – more like pictures of the cards, similar to things like cards cut from 19th Century album premiums. They certainly remain desirable, however, and still have value.

Identification

A big problem regarding this set is that it can be very difficult to tell them from the W575-1 cards, which are also blank-backed cards with the E121 American Caramel design. There are some easy ones that can definitely be identified as Koester’s cards.

Many of the Koester cards were not printed in the W575-1 set, so those would definitely be Koester cards. Those are identified in the checklist below. In addition, the thicker hand-cut cards from the poster mentioned earlier are considered Koester cards as well.

Finally, many can be identified as Koester’s cards based on their position designations printed on the bottom of the cards. More information on those can be found here.

1921 Koester Bread (D383) Checklist

Any cards believed to not be in the W575-1 set are identified below. Thus, any cards of those players are definitely Koester’s Bread cards and not regular black-backed W575-1s.

  1. Home Run Baker
  2. Dave Bancroft
  3. Jesse Barnes (not in W575-1)
  4. Howard Berry (not in W575-1)
  5. Ed Brown (not in W575-1)
  6. Jesse Burkett (not in W575-1)
  7. George Burns
  8. Cecil Causey
  9. Rip Collins
  10. Bill Cunningham (not in W575-1)
  11. Lou DE Vormer
  12. Phil Douglas
  13. Alex Ferguson (not in W575-1)
  14. Bill Fewster
  15. Frankie Frisch
  16. Alexander Gaston
  17. Mike Gonzalez
  18. Harry Harper
  19. Chicken Hawks (not in W575-1)
  20. Fred Hoffman (not in W575-1)
  21. Waite Hoyt
  22. Miller Huggins
  23. Hughie Jennings
  24. George Kelly
  25. Carl Mays
  26. John McGraw
  27. M.J. McNally
  28. Bob Meusel
  29. Emil Meusel
  30. Elmer Miller
  31. John Mitchell (not in W575-1)
  32. Art Nehf
  33. Charles O’Leary (not in W575-1)
  34. Roger Peckinpaugh
  35. William Piercy (not in W575-1)
  36. Wally Pipp
  37. Jack Quinn
  38. John Rawlings
  39. Tom Rogers
  40. Robert Roth
  41. Babe Ruth
  42. Bill Ryan
  43. Slim Sallee
  44. Wally Schang
  45. Bob Shawkey
  46. Pat Shea
  47. Earl Smith
  48. Frank Snyder
  49. Casey Stengel (not in W575-1)
  50. Fred Toney
  51. Aaron Ward
  52. Ross Youngs

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