1910 Nadja Caramels Set (E104)

Posted on October 3, 2016 by Pre-War Cards

‘It’s In The Details’

Title	E104 Nadja Caramels
Year	1910
Size	1 1/2″ x 2 3/4″
Images	Color
Type	Candy/Caramel
Number in Set	68

E104 Nadja Caramels Overview

The E104 Nadja Caramels set is a relatively popular, albeit rare, E-card issue. Cards feature color portraits on the front with the player’s name and team. The set is broken down into three separate subsets.

E104-1 Philadelphia Athletics
E104-2 Pittsburgh Pirates
E104-3 Various Players

One includes a variety of Philadelphia Athletics players. The second subset features only members of the Pittsburgh Pirates – world champions from the previous year. Finally, the third set includes a mix of players. One variation is that some of the Athletics cards have a ‘1910 World Champions’ banner at the top (others do not).

Regarding the backs, two different versions are found across the three sets. Some feature blank backs while others have a Nadja Caramels advertisement that states, “Play Ball and eat Nadja Caramels – the winners.”

That theme is similar to the popular E90 American Caramel series, which was also broken into three sets – a larger issue covering numerous teams and two team issues. The E104 Pirates subset, in fact, has the same checklist as the E90-2 set.

The cards are extremely rare with PSA, SGC, and Beckett grading fewer than 500 cards. E104-1 cards featuring the Athletics are the most common. Many E104-3 cards are rare with most having only a handful of graded copies. Because the cards are rare, prices can fluctuate quite a bit as they aren’t often up for sale.

Cards should not be confused with Nadja’s other issue, found as one of four E92 sets.

New Discoveries

New discoveries for the E104-3 set featuring various players have been found in recent years. The latest known one is the addition of Fred Tenney to the checklist.

I wrote about this particular card here as it was just accounted for in 2018. A collector purchased the card in the 1980s and it had been out of view since then. As of the time of this publication, it is believed to be the only known copy.

Because only a few copies are known of many of the cards in the set, it is likely that other uncataloged players exist. Finding more in the coming years will not be a big surprise.

The Tenney card is pictured here.

Swift Overprints

One notable stamp associated with this set is the name ‘Swift.’ Backs of blank Nadja cards have been found with a purple name of Swift along with a corresponding address of 244 W. 23rd Street.

While the Swift stamps are somewhat common on these cards, what has been in dispute is the origin. Some have associated the Swift name to a legitimate business that stamped their address and distributed these cards as their own (as was common for many businesses to do). Others, however, have associated them with a mere individual collector, who simply stamped his/her cards — also a common practice.

The Swift stamps are interesting but do not seem to have much of a premium associated with them.