H998 Western Playground Association Set and Checklist

Posted on September 7, 2016 by Pre-War Cards

‘It’s In The Details’

Title	H998 Western Playground Association
Year	1911
Size	2 1/4″ x 3 1/2″
Images	Sepia
Type	Trade
Number in Set	40

H998 Western Playground Association Overview

H998 Western Playground Back H998 Western Playground.jpg The H998 Western Playground Association cards were part of a convoluted promotion. The regional cards featured sepia-toned pictures of baseball players in the Pacific Coast League. The backs explained the set’s purpose and promotion. Several of the images in the set were the same ones used in the rare T217 Mono issue.

Each card has a sepia tone with a picture of a player inside of a dark brown border. The Western Playground name is found on them along with the last name of the player.

The cards themselves were actually “Membership Certificates.” Each card/certificate had a value of seven cents. Children were to be given one of these when they purchased a bank stock book or tablet, as indicated on the backs. They were then to give the certificate to a teacher, who could redeem them for five percent back.

As the back explains, thus, if a teacher mailed in 1,000 certificates, they had $70.00 worth of them. They would then be given 5% of that amount ($3.50 in this case) to be used towards the purchase of school or playground equipment. The cards would be sent from the teacher to the Western Playground Association in San Francisco (which, of course explains the Pacific Coast League tie-in as a west coast company).

As Heritage Auctions explains, the redemption program is likely the reason the cards are difficult to find today. Pictures of the cards can be seen here.

Typos

The cards featured baseball players in the Pacific Coast League. Fronts made this note, abbreviating it to ‘P.C. League.’ However, a few of the cards have the designation, ‘P.S. League’ instead – Brashear, Byram, Castleton, Chadbourne, Christian, Gregory, Henley, Metzger, and Stinson. The P.S. League designation is in error as those players were on Pacific Coast League teams.

In addition, one of the players’ names is misspelled on his card. The card for Roy Castleton is misspelled with his last name printed as ‘Caslleton.’ Castleton is a notable player as he is credited as being the first Mormon player to appear in the major leagues.