Pre-War Cards

‘It’s In The Details’

1930s Nestle Sports Series Stamps Overview

These intriguing cards were offered in Nestle products in France. Like some other releases, many series’ make up the overall set. These are called stamps but are more like album cards. They could be affixed into books but are not like the traditional postage stamps we know of today.

In all, there are dozens of these series’ and while most picture non-sports subjects, some sports series’ were included. Basketball, boxing, wrestling, tennis, track and field, cycling, golf, ice skating, skiing, and weightlifting are some of the known sports covered in the sets. Some focused on things such as the Olympics while others featured subjects such as winter sports. I have not yet seen a full accounting of all of the different stamps or even the different series’.

These seem to have been produced over many years as well as they are often dated all over the map in the 1930s. I have seen dates for them of 1935, 1936, and 1938, at least. It is possible that all of those are correct with different series’ being issued over a span of years.

The stamps were designed to be affixed into albums and, as expected, some were.

Today, you will find these stamps sometimes with the original backs if they were not mounted into the books or ones that were will often have residue or even the album pages stuck to them. Like some other international issues, these were less traditional cards that were much thinner than most gum and candy issues here. They are paper thin and similar to the 1932 Sanella/Astra margarine multi-sport set, but smaller.

The cards feature color pictures of subjects with white borders. The card number as well as the series to which it belongs is in small black type at the bottom.

1930s Nestle Sports Series Stamps Checklist

A complete checklist for this set has not been identified.