1887 Duke Gymnastics (N77) Set and Checklist

‘It’s In The Details’

Title Duke Gymnastics (N77)
Year 1887
Size 1 3/8″ x 2 5/8″
Images Color
Type Tobacco
Number in Set
25

1887 Duke Gymnastics (N77) Set Overview

This rare American tobacco card issue is one of the premier gymnastics cards ever released.

Issued by W. Duke Sons & Company Tobacco for their cigarette products, these cards are quite popular. Part of the reason the set is desirable is because it is from the 19th century. But another major factor is that the set is one of the few card sets depicting early gymnastics.

Fronts include color depictions of gymnasts in a variety of poses. The fronts also include the title of the particular activity being depicted. The bottom of the cards include the Duke Sons name and tout them as ‘The Largest Cigarette Manufacturer in the World.’

There are only 25 cards in the set, but it is not an easy set to build. Low-grade commons typically start in the $10-$20 range, so it is an affordable set. However, the cards are quite rare and often, not many are even found on eBay. PSA, for example, has graded only a little more than 100 of these cards. And while many are found in raw format (meaning the population report does not tell the entire story), they are a decidedly tough issue to find.

Note that, while most of the cards depict gymnastics, not all do. The set includes a fencing card and others include ‘circus-like’ activities.

Like other 19th century tobacco issues, these cards are significantly thicker than most tobacco cards in the 1900s.

1887 Duke Gymnastics (N77) Set Checklist

  1. Back Wheel
  2. Backward Knee Swing
  3. Double Arm Swing
  4. Dumb Bells
  5. Fencing
  6. Flying Rings Swinging Exercise
  7. Flying Trapeze Leg Fly
  8. Foot Hang
  9. Forward Wheel Swing
  10. Giant Swing
  11. Hanging by Toes
  12. Indian Clubs
  13. Leg Swing
  14. Outside Hand Vault
  15. Parallel Bar Handspring
  16. Parallel Bar Vaulting
  17. Parallel Bar Walking
  18. Roll Over
  19. Rope Climbing
  20. Rope Walking
  21. Saddle Vaulting
  22. Slanting Ladder
  23. Slow Pull Up
  24. Swing and Snap Up
  25. Trapeze Flying Jump

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