Cigarette & Trade Cards

Cigarette Cards vs. Trade Cards - What's the difference?

In truth, it is the manufacturer or brand advertised on the card which differentiates it between being a cigarette card, or a trade card; cigarette cards are a subset of advertising trade cards.

Starting in the 1870's tobacco manufacturers began including pieces of card inside their cigarette packs to stiffen the packaging, in the 1880's the US brand Allen & Ginter printed some of these card inserts to show a series of subjects such as animals, flags, native American chiefs etc., other companies soon followed suit in the US, then the UK and later around thew world. By the eventual demise of the

Subjects

With thousands of manufacturers, and hundreds-of-thousands of sets, you can be pretty sure that if you've got an interest in a particular subject, there will be a set somewhere showing it.

Interested in Aston Villa footballers from 1903?

Try the

The regiments of the British Army?

There are hundreds of sets to choose from, including Gallaher, Godfrey Phillips, Players, Wills,

Rivers in South America?

The back can be just as important as the front...

Sets, part-sets, odds and type cards

Shapes and Sizes

For cigarette cards, the size for most sets was limited by the space available inside a standard packet of 10, or 20, cigarettes. When it comes to Trades cards though, with more space available the cards got larger, and with more space comes more options for shape.