E-Cards (Candy)
Introduction
E-Cards consist of cards representing numerous candy and caramel companies. These cards, in general, are much rarer than tobacco cards.
Jefferson Burdick indirectly classified these as pre-1933 issues since his R-Card designation for later gum and candy cards was to be used for issues from 1933 and later. However, some issues, such as the 1929 Kashin set (R316) don’t follow that identification – likely because Burdick was unaware of the exact year of issue.
After the T-Cards, E-Cards are probably the most popular card designation. There are not only many E-Card issues, but some very significant sets. The two most popular, perhaps, are the E90-1 American Caramel release and the E145 1914 and 1915 Cracker Jack cards.
Companies printing these cards often used many of the same images, likely to help save the time and expenses necessary to produce new ones. For that reason, some of the E-Card sets look alike and are distinguished by their backs.
Those backs, by the way, sometimes contained checklists of the entire set when it was feasible. Several of these sets were limited to under 50 cards and having the checklist on the cards when they were produced certainly was a help to collectors when the cards were first released. Some other backs don’t list the entire checklist, but do state how many cards were in the set. And in the case of some, like the E90 American Caramel set, the number advertised was not accurate.
In addition to the numerous candy/caramel cards categorized by Jefferson Burdick in the American Card Catalog, several unreported sets exist as well, which are presented at the bottom. Some of these sets were even cards printed on the exterior of boxes and were perhaps even left out intentionally since they were not traditional cards.
Earlier E-Cards were generally colorful lithographs while later ones often used real, but black and white, images.
Looking to learn more on E-Cards? Here’s a bit more information.
Sets
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