War cards were a big Topps staple in the early 1950's. World War 2 had ended a scant half a decade earlier and unbelievably yet another conflict, the Korean War, was raging. The boys in Brooklyn took advantage and issued a large set of cards called
Freedom's War over a two year period from mid-1950 to mid-1952. I won't get into all the permutations here but there are card stock differences, single cards, two-card panels, three price points for packs, a series of die cut tanks that lost the cut and then were pulled completely, at least three separate printings and a bunch of other stuff I'll get into in a really long post someday.
Oh yeah, they looked really good too:
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9XHeEMMDDAYZDuLtQ94L3stf5SqY7kSf-07B9E-p9P5RqU2KKKnnR3NNLtpEGKNoTyiG9bR91Bvc6Ivyt-fGYyeBzDWga0FAcudkwPXgcqUsw3RKx8r_MarIG2j6zN-y-USQeN6KDIg/s320/50freedomswarfront.jpg)
Come on, how great is that shot? The backs are typical Topps fare at the time:
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0idnDEKw1BvD2Coi2OLj8U0400qVTH_6vG6qfLMSb8sDGpmdMTNkbfX6RpQnPMlQznoaD8By0I3rgvnsSy20eeN76yj2ddwQFI5iUHwKFCpOiaQqzJ1YHSs4qoMci5mRjpCKIzgZFgw/s320/50freedomswarreverse.jpg)
These are sized at 2
1/16" 2
5/8" which was a common size in use at the time.
Today though, I want to look at the penny wrapper, which is outstanding:
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguiHI95pQU7NLwFqp6xh0T6WM4gHTaVHr3khfyCU28cro37BiOopc5s2oVUge3Fx1O2QZF75r-TckC-X6DWwjaMjwtbT6JnV2gKR-fUJJxGwGIwWqE0D4vQhE5EFTKE8LT_ZP6YYRvtQ/s320/50toppsonecentwrapperfreedomswar+cleanedup.jpg)
Topps was likely trying to up the patriotism quotient in their battle with Bowman, a company known for its staunch pro-government stance.
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