1910 Champion Pugilists Set and Checklist (T219)

Posted on December 7, 2016 by Pre-War Cards

‘It’s In The Details’

Title	T219 Champion Pugilists (Honest, Miner’s Extra, Red Cross)
Year	1910
Size	2 1/4″ x 2 7/8″
Images	Color
Type	Tobacco
Number in Set	50

1910 Champion Pugilists (T219) Overview

T219 James Jeffries Boxing If these cards look familiar to you, you’ve more likely seen the T218 champions set.

These T219 cards are a shortened version of that larger issue, featuring only boxers from that set. Images used for the fighters are the same as cards from T218 but these cards are slightly smaller, measuring about 1/4″ less.

The cards look different than most of the early 1900s tobacco issues. Instead of a long, narrow design, these cards are nearly square in shape and look like the gum card issues of the 1930s. They are, however, slightly more rectangular than the more common T218s.

The cards have color lithographic pictures of athletes on the fronts along with their name printed in small capital letters. And, as shown here, they were printed both horizontally and vertically. Some athletes are featured in different poses on more than one card.

Rarity

Backs of the cards are also different. Instead of the T218 cards, which were issued with Hassan, Mecca, and Tolstoi tobacco products, these were issued primarily with Honest Long Cut and, to a lesser extent, Miner’s Extra products. A much smaller amount of cards were printed with Red Cross Tobacco products and those are significantly harder to find.

When it comes to determining the rarity of these cards, on the whole, T218 cards are much easier to find than T219. The most common T219 back is the one with advertising for Honest Long Cut. Miner’s is significantly harder than that one and Red Cross is rarest of all.