T217 Mono Cigarettes Set and Checklist

Posted on October 11, 2016 by Pre-War Cards

‘It’s In The Details’

Title	T217 Mono Cigarettes
Year	1910-11
Size	1 1/2″ x 2 5/8″
Images	Black and White
Type	Tobacco
Number in Set	25

T217 Mono Cigarettes Overview

T217 Mono Cigarettes Back.jpg T217 Metzger.jpg The T217 Mono Cigarettes set includes a total of 200 cards. Most are of famous actresses of the era, but a few baseball players are included – 25 to be exact.

Cards have black and white images on the fronts (somewhat of a rarity for 20th Century tobacco cards, which mostly featured color lithographs) with an advertisement for the Turkish cigarette brand on the back. The backs state that there are 200 baseball and actress portraits in the set and also list the going rate for their Turkish blend cigarettes of ten for five cents.

It is worth noting that, in terms of the baseball players, there are two with pose variations in Delhi and Smith.

Players in the set are from the Pacific Coast League minor league teams. Some players did reach the major leagues but the set does not include many big names beyond former American League Most Valuable Player Roger Peckinpaugh. Even in low-grade condition, Peckinpaugh’s card sells for a few thousand dollars.

Despite having only 25 cards, it’s not an easy set to assemble because of its rarity. SGC has graded all of the cards in the set but hasn’t graded very many of each.

Checklisting Confusion

25 baseball cards are known in the advertised set of 200 cards but how many total cards actually exist is unclear.

The set does, as advertised, also consist of actresses. However, few actress cards are known and no complete checklist of 200 cards is known. It is possible (likely, even) that 200 cards were never produced and that was simply a planned number.

It should also be noted that the actress cards from this set vary in that no names are printed on them.