T201
 Mecca Cigarettes logo and slogan displayed on cards back | |
| Type | Illustrated Baseball card |
|---|---|
| Company | American Tobacco Company |
| Country | United States |
| Availability | 1911–1911 |
T201's, also known as Mecca Double Folders, were a type of cigarette card issued in 1911 by the Mecca cigarette company, then part of American Tobacco Company. The collection featured color drawings of professional baseball players. The 'T201' designation comes from the American Card Catalogue, an authoritative guide to trading cards issued prior to 1951. (In other words, before the Topps company began to dominate the industry).
The set consisted of a total of 50 cards measuring 2-3/16 inches x 4-3/4 inches. The 100 players pictured include a number of Hall of Famers, such as Ty Cobb, Christy Mathewson, and Tris Speaker.[1]
Overview[]
T201's were called Double Folders because of their innovative design. Each card featured two players, one in a full picture on the front and one on half of the back. The other half of the back featured player statistics (one of the first baseball trading cards to do so) and an ad for Mecca.[2] The cards were designed so that, when they were folded appropriately, the player on the back would appear on the legs of the picture on the front. Topps borrowed this idea in designing its 1955 Doubleheaders set.[1]
The name Mecca chosen for the cigarette brand was related to an increasing demand for Turkish tobacco at the beginning of the XX Century, so Arabic names helped increase sells (Hassan or Fatima were other brands used by the company by then).[1]
Like other tobacco sets, such as the famous T205 and T206 issues, T201's were not numbered. Checklists generally list the cards alphabetically by the last name of the player pictured on the front of the card. Card pairs generally combined teammates, most of them Hall of Famers.[3]
See also[]
Cigarette Cards
References[]
- ^ Jump up to: a b c T201 #1–50 checklist
- ^ 1911 T201 Baseball Cards on CardBoardConnection
- ^ T201 Mecca Double Folders Set is a Pre-War Bargain by Anson Whaley on Sports Collectors Daily, 30 Nov 2016
External links[]
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to T201 (Mecca Double Folders). |
- Gallery of complete T201 set on Vintage Card Traders
- Baseball cards