

The campaign that followed was one of the most remarkable in recent business history, and it was waged on the part of the American Tobacco Company with Mr. Duke, and he thereupon proceeded to apply a course of treatment designed to change their opinion of the advantages of industrial combination. These two firms did not take kindly to the arguments advanced by Mr. Louis, the latter said to be then the largest tobacco manufacturers in the world. Lorillard Company and Liggett & Myers, of St. Two of the largest of these concerns were the P. Duke next turned his attention to bringing these firms and also the manufacturers of plug tobacco into line. The American Tobacco Company thus found itself competing with the manufacturers of pipe tobacco and Mr. Along with its cigarette interests the American Tobacco Company had acquired a certain amount of business in smoking tobacco, especially from the Duke and Kimball companies, which had several popular brands on the market. Like most T-series cards originating from Louisiana, they're scarce. Though sometimes confused with T206 cards, Red Cross cards closely resemble T213 Type 2 cards. īoth types have the same back, which is a horizontal advertisement for Red Cross tobacco, along with what many war buffs will recognize as the German Iron Cross. The fronts use the same images as the T206 except instead of the brown lettering in the bottom border they used blue lettering. Type 2 cards: Red Cross Tobacco issued this second set of cards in 1912-1913. The fronts use the same images as the T206 including the brown lettering in the bottom border. Type 1 cards: Red Cross Tobacco issued this first set of cards in 1910-1912. Below the picture, the player's name appears with the city (and sometimes league) of the team he played for. Like many tobacco card sets from the early 20th century, the fronts feature a lithograph of a player surrounded by a white border. Despite differences between the two types, they are all lumped in together under the same catalog number.
REMEMBRANCE POPPY CROSS SERIES
The first series appeared in 1910 and ran through 1912, while the second was issued in 1912 or 1913. Like other "white border" sets, T215's were probably printed by American Lithographic Company in New York. Red Cross tobacco was manufactured by Lorillard Tobacco Company in Jersey City, New Jersey. Although T215's have a New Jersey factory designation, it is believed they were primarily distributed in the Louisiana area and are considered a Louisiana issue. T215 cards were distributed in two different forms through packages of Red Cross tobacco around New Orleans. The overwhelming majority of T215s are in good condition or below (around 60% of all graded examples, in fact), and just a handful existing examples are strong enough to have attained the VG/EX level. Indeed, between PSA and SGC combined, just over 150 copies have been graded, and just one - a PSA 8 Cy Young - has graded above the EX/MT level. Extremely limited in production, the cards are very scarce, and for some reason also very condition sensitive. When it comes to prewar type card collecting, the T215 Red Cross Tobacco issue quickly becomes a white whale for collectors.
