1911 Mecca Double Folders Set (T201)

Posted on October 5, 2016 by Pre-War Cards

‘It’s In The Details’

Title	T201 Mecca Double Folders
Year	1911
Size	2 1/4″ x 4 3/4″
Images	Color
Type	Tobacco
Number in Set	50

T201 Mecca Double Folders Overview

The 1911 T201 Mecca Double Folders set was one of the more unique pre-war cards in terms of design.

The set is often a popular target of collectors that are looking for tobacco cards. It’s one of the easier tobacco baseball sets to assemble and part of the reason for that is because it’s probably the most affordable.

Instead of featuring one player, the double folders cards included two. In addition, the cards were designed with a factory-made fold.

When fully opened, one full-length player would be seen. When folded down, the bottom portion of the original picture would still be seen but the reverse of the top would fold down over the previous top, creating a new player. Several of the pairings in the set feature two key players and are, as a result, even more desirable.

In other words, one full side included a card and the reverse included the top to create a new card. Also on the reverse was statistical information for each player featured as well as ad for the distributor, Mecca Cigarettes. Here’s more information on how these cards ‘worked.’

Each card included a pair of teammates and while most were major leaguers, a few included players from minor league teams.

The card includes some pricey big name guys like Ty Cobb and Christy Mathewson. But its small size makes it a reasonable set pursuit.

Most cards included one star and one lesser player. But a handful included two Hall of Famers, such as the cards featuring Sam Crawford/Ty Cobb, Johnny Evers/Frank Chance, Eddie Collins/Home Run Baker, and Miller Huggins/Roger Bresnahan.

Cutting/Trimming

One thing you may notice is that the cards’ borders are often not entirely straight. That doesn’t mean, however, there is anything particularly wrong with the card.

When fully opened, one part of the card (i.e. the top half) can be slightly slanted inward while the other part (i.e. the bottom half) is similarly angled inward. That is normal and doesn’t mean that it has been necessarily trimmed and if it is cut properly, when folded, the top part will align with the bottom. The cards often had irregular cuts that are typically on the left edge of a card when opened up.