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
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.
- Home Run Baker
- Dave Bancroft
- Jesse Barnes (not in W575-1)
- Howard Berry (not in W575-1)
- Ed Brown (not in W575-1)
- Jesse Burkett (not in W575-1)
- George Burns
- Cecil Causey
- Rip Collins
- Bill Cunningham (not in W575-1)
- Lou DE Vormer
- Phil Douglas
- Alex Ferguson (not in W575-1)
- Bill Fewster
- Frankie Frisch
- Alexander Gaston
- Mike Gonzalez
- Harry Harper
- Chicken Hawks (not in W575-1)
- Fred Hoffman (not in W575-1)
- Waite Hoyt
- Miller Huggins
- Hughie Jennings
- George Kelly
- Carl Mays
- John McGraw
- M.J. McNally
- Bob Meusel
- Emil Meusel
- Elmer Miller
- John Mitchell (not in W575-1)
- Art Nehf
- Charles O’Leary (not in W575-1)
- Roger Peckinpaugh
- William Piercy (not in W575-1)
- Wally Pipp
- Jack Quinn
- John Rawlings
- Tom Rogers
- Robert Roth
- Babe Ruth
- Bill Ryan
- Slim Sallee
- Wally Schang
- Bob Shawkey
- Pat Shea
- Earl Smith
- Frank Snyder
- Casey Stengel (not in W575-1)
- Fred Toney
- Aaron Ward
- Ross Youngs
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