1909 W555 Strip Card Set and Checklist
‘It’s In The Details’
Title | W555 Strip |
Year | 1909 |
Size | 1 1/4″ x 1 1/4″ (but varies by cut) |
Images | Black and White |
Type | Strip |
Number in Set |
68 |
W555 Strip Card Overview
The 1909 W555 strip card set includes small, black and white square pictures. As proved in a 2007 discovery, the cards are from the outsides of candy boxes from a Philadelphia candy producer named Jay Meyer. Essentially, that should actually make them E-Cards.
It is likely that Jefferson Burdick did not realize where they came from when he created the American Card Catalog and assigned a W-Card classification to this issue. That is even more likely given that Burdick called the producer/distributor ‘anonymous’ in his book.
Some of the pictures have been also used in other sets. For example, Ames’ card is from one his T206 cards. But where collectors will mostly recognize the pictures is in other early candy/caramel card sets. The cards are small, measuring only a little larger than 1″ on each side.
The set includes numerous big names and Hall of Famers, such as Chief Bender, Mordecai Brown, Frank Chance, Hal Chase, Eddie Cicotte, Ty Cobb, Clark Griffith, Hughie Jennings, Addie Joss, Willie Keeler, Nap Lajoie, Christy Mathewson, John McGraw, Eddie Plank, Joe Tinker, Honus Wagner, Rube Waddell, and Cy Young. The stars, obviously, are the more valuable cards. But even commons are relatively pricey starting around $50 or so.
Many typos of player names exist. The pictures may be familiar to some collectors as they appeared in other caramel and tobacco card sets.
An error also exists with a card featuring Cy Young. Young is named on one of the cards but it’s actually Irv Young that is pictured. The correction was later made as instead of ‘Cy Young’, some versions of the card simply say ‘Young.’ The Cy/Irv Young debacle is one that is found in other sets, too.
Here are pictures of all of the cards in the set.
W555 Strip Card Checklist
- Red Ames
- Jimmy Austin
- Johnny Bates
- Chief Bender
- Bob Bescher
- Joe Birmingham
- Bill Bradley
- Kitty Bransfield
- Mordecai Brown
- Bobby Byrne
- Frank Chance
- Hal Chase
- Eddie Cicotte
- Fred Clarke
- Ty Cobb
- Eddie Collins
- Jimmy Collins
- Harry Coveleski
- Sam Crawford
- Harry Davis
- Jim Delahanty
- Art Devlin
- Josh Devore
- Bill Donovan
- Red Dooin
- Mickey Doolan
- Patsy Dougherty
- Bull Durham
- Jimmy Dygert
- Johnny Evers
- Russ Ford
- George Gibson
- Clark Griffith
- Topsy Hartsel
- Bill Hinchman
- Charlie Hemphill
- Hughie Jennings
- Davy Jones
- Addie Joss
- Willie Keeler
- Red Kleinow
- Nap Lajoie
- Joe Lake
- Tommy Leach
- Harry Lord
- Sherry Magee
- Christy Mathewson
- Amby McConnell
- John McGraw
- Chief Meyers
- Earl Moore
- Mike Mowery
- George Mullin
- Red Murray
- Simon Nicholls
- Jim Pastorious
- Deacon Phillippe
- Eddie Plank
- Fred Snodgrass
- Harry Steinfeldt
- Joe Tinker
- Terry Turner
- Hippo Vaughn
- Rube Waddell
- Honus Wagner
- Hooks Wiltse
- Cy Young
- Cy Young
- Irv Young
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