N-Cards/T-Cards (Tobacco)
Introduction
The N-Cards and T-Cards represent tobacco issues and are one of the most popular of the designations given by Jefferson Burdick in the American Card Catalog. N-Cards represent 19th Century tobacco issues while T-Cards identify those produced in the 20th Century.
While both were generally baseball issues, a few did include the sport of football. Those can be found below.
Of particular note is that the first true football card is arguably found in the N-Cards. The 1888 N162 Goodwin Champions set features Harry Beecher of Yale and that card (shown here) is generally viewed by most collectors as the first football issue depicting a real player.
Also of note is that some later international issues also featured the sport of football. The ones presented here are limited to ones where American football was featured.
Looking to learn more about collecting tobacco cards? Here’s an introduction of sorts that I wrote, which covers their history.
Sets
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