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

W555 Clarke.jpg

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

  1. Red Ames
  2. Jimmy Austin
  3. Johnny Bates
  4. Chief Bender
  5. Bob Bescher
  6. Joe Birmingham
  7. Bill Bradley
  8. Kitty Bransfield
  9. Mordecai Brown
  10. Bobby Byrne
  11. Frank Chance
  12. Hal Chase
  13. Eddie Cicotte
  14. Fred Clarke
  15. Ty Cobb
  16. Eddie Collins
  17. Jimmy Collins
  18. Harry Coveleski
  19. Sam Crawford
  20. Harry Davis
  21. Jim Delahanty
  22. Art Devlin
  23. Josh Devore
  24. Bill Donovan
  25. Red Dooin
  26. Mickey Doolan
  27. Patsy Dougherty
  28. Bull Durham
  29. Jimmy Dygert
  30. Johnny Evers
  31. Russ Ford
  32. George Gibson
  33. Clark Griffith
  34. Topsy Hartsel
  35. Bill Hinchman
  36. Charlie Hemphill
  37. Hughie Jennings
  38. Davy Jones
  39. Addie Joss
  40. Willie Keeler
  41. Red Kleinow
  42. Nap Lajoie
  43. Joe Lake
  44. Tommy Leach
  45. Harry Lord
  46. Sherry Magee
  47. Christy Mathewson
  48. Amby McConnell
  49. John McGraw
  50. Chief Meyers
  51. Earl Moore
  52. Mike Mowery
  53. George Mullin
  54. Red Murray
  55. Simon Nicholls
  56. Jim Pastorious
  57. Deacon Phillippe
  58. Eddie Plank
  59. Fred Snodgrass
  60. Harry Steinfeldt
  61. Joe Tinker
  62. Terry Turner
  63. Hippo Vaughn
  64. Rube Waddell
  65. Honus Wagner
  66. Hooks Wiltse
  67. Cy Young
  68. Cy Young
  69. Irv Young

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