Pre-War Cards

‘It’s In The Details’

Title	T6 Murad College Series Premiums
Year	1909-11
Size	5″ x 8″
Images	Color
Type	Tobacco
Number in Set	25

T6 Murad Set Overview

The T6 Murad College Series cards were a 25-card set of cabinet cards featuring various colleges and sports. In the short set are several baseball, basketball, football, and hockey cards. Two baseball and two football cards are here in addition to a single basketball and hockey card. An exact date is not known for the issue but they are believed to have been printed between 1909 and 1911 at the latest.

Cards depicting any of the four major sports are all heavily desired. Most of the cards feature an athlete in a particular sport, but four have only a pennant and seal – Dartmouth, Illinois, Missouri, and Penn.

One difference from these and the T51 cards is that these have a specific card number printed onto the backs.

Unlike the T51 Murad College Series set, this issue is much smaller in terms of the number of cards. Instead of 150 cards like the T51 issue, there are only 25 cabinets in this set. That’s because this was a special mail-in premium issue where collectors had to send in coupons to get these. It was surely much easier to produce only 25 cards in the set rather than trying to reproduce these larger items for the entire 150-card issue. The 25 used in the set are comprised of the first series (first 25 cards) of the T51 set.

The T6 cards are much rarer than their T51 counterpart because of that aforementioned mail in offer. Collectors had to send in 15 coupons to get one of these cards and the offer for the promotion was only good for a limited time, expiring on June 30, 1911. Given the scarcity on these, either not many survived or not all that many were requested. Singles can be found but finding an entire set for sale at once is extremely rare. It isn’t impossible to piece together a set because there are only 25 cards, but it is rare to see an entire set presented at once for sale.

These cards are smaller in quantity but larger in actual size. At 5″ x 8″, they are significantly bigger than the regular cards in the T51 set. The images are mostly the same between both sets, however … more on that below.

T6 Murad Type 1 vs. Type 2 and Variations

One thing that not all collectors are aware of are the two different types of T6 Murad cards. The differences are subtle, but they are there. The easiest way to tell the two types of cards apart is the fonts of the card number on the back.

Serif fonts are Type 1 while Sans Serif fonts are Type 2. One interesting note is that the American Card Catalog also makes reference to the Type 2 cards being ‘redrawn.’ For that reason, there are potentially some other minor differences on the fronts in the pictures. There are definitely variations but if you’re looking for the easiest way to tell them apart, stick with the fonts of the card numbers.

In addition, while the images between the T6 Murad set and T51 are basically the same, there are some slight variations between the two. Take the Harvard card, for example. In the T51 set, the image is a little confusing. The red-sleeved team is kicking the ball but in the background, a couple of red-sleeved defenders (teammates) are curiously rushing the kick and trying to block the ball. This obviously was an error in the artwork and the later T6 card fixes it by changing the jerseys of those players to blue, the opposing team.

T6 Murad Checklist

Below is a checklist for the entire set: