1930 Post Cereal Famous North Americans Set (F278-50)

Posted on September 7, 2016 by Pre-War Cards

‘It’s In The Details’

Title	F278-50 Post Cereal Famous North Americans
Year	1930s
Size	2 3/8″ x 3 1/4″
Images	Black and White
Type	Food
Number in Set	32

1930s F278-50 Post Cereal Famous North Americans Overview

This set was distributed at some point in the 1930s with the exact year being unknown. While it consists mostly of non-sports personalities (famous Americans, as the set is called), one baseball player is in the set in the form of Hall of Famer Christy Mathewson. Mathewson’s card is the key to the issue.

While the card is very old, it is not quite a contemporary issue of Mathewson’s. In fact, Mathewson would have been out of baseball for more than a decade (and, depending on the year it was issued, perhaps even two) by the time it was printed. The card actually includes Mathewson’s birth year and year of death, 1925, serving as a memorial card of sorts.

Cards were printed (with four to a panel) on the backs of Post Cereal boxes. They have red backgrounds with the rest of the drawing comprised almost entirely of black ink. The bottom of each card has the person’s name as well as a short description about them. Mathewson’s description calls him the ‘greatest of all baseball pitchers.’ The cards are more valuable when attached to the entire panel but are usually found hand cut with uneven edges.

Mathewson’s card is surely the most popular one in the set and usually sells for $100 or more. But non-sports collectors will find plenty of other notable cards here, including those for the likes of Buffalo Bill, Benjamin Franklin, Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, and others.

The set is sometimes referred to as the Famous Americans set. However, the correct title is “Famous North Americans” as described on the cereal boxes.