Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Foiled!

Once again we take the WABAC machine to 1949, a favorite place of mine, to explore the three wrapper interior sets Topps issued sixty years ago.

I have already extolled the virtues of the Willard Mullin Spalding Sports Show wrappers previously but fear not, intrepid reader, there are more wonders to be seen. To refresh your memory, the set designated R414-1 by Jefferson Burdick looked like this:





The Atom Gum wrapper would be seen again, namely backstopping a hard to find set called Famous Events (R711-4).



This set potentially features at least 365 wrapper interiors but it's anyone's guess how many were actually issued. Friend O' The Archives Jeff Shepherd has told me that there is at least one date with two events, so it's a mystery altho' Jeff is trying to track them all down. The horoscope-like sayings are a bit odd methinks.

The exterior wrapper looks identical to the one used for Mullin's cartoons and I'm only showing it because it's clearer than the other scan:



If you had a nickel to spend, Topps had a big bar of bubble gum for you, plus a bizarrely narrated set entitled It Happened To A President (seriously, check out the stuff these guys are saying !) and sporting an ACC number of R711-5.



Presumably the set goes all the way up to President Truman. Here is the outer wrapper, quite gorgeous isn't it?



The Golden Coin wrapper is over 6 1/4" x 4 1/2" in size, so that must have been one whopping piece of bubble gum in there! The coins are described in various references as being made of a bronze colored plastic and there is a relationship to a premium set of metal coins (also called Golden Coin) given away by gas stations and who knows what other establishments in the 40's and 50's. The coins (both types) and presumably the wrapper interiors were updated for the 1956 election when O-Pee-Chee reissued It Happened To A President, with a distinct red tint, in Canada of all places.

I'm working on getting scans up of the coins and the OPC wrapper (hopefully) soon, watch this space!

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