SCOUTS ON TRADING CARDS

In the late 1800’s and early to mid 1900’s cigarette manufactures, chocolates, sweet  & tea manufactures released collectible cards that were included in with their products that included subjects that ranged from sports stars of the time to birds & wildlife and transport, there were also Scout themed cards released, the subjects of these cards included Scout badges & Scouting activities. These were avidly collected by both Leaders & Boys and would be swapped in an attempt to get the whole set.

The producers of these sets included Odgens, Anstie’s, Copes,  WA & AC Churchman, Gallaher, John Players & Sons & CWS, Fry’s Chocolate, Pascals and Priory Tea also produced albums so you could keep your collection in good condition

The Cards comprised of an image on the front and on the rear was a description giving facts and other information relevant to the image on the front. Pascal’s seems to be an exception to this from images I have seen and they used the back of the card to advertise their products

Scout themed cards also popped up as individual cards that were part of other themed sets a couple of examples are shown below:
– Priory Tea Ltd of People in Uniform released in 1956 as part of their “I Spy” series, that included an image of a Boy S out in uniform
– A set of 50 cards issued by Brooke Bond Tea of Famous People that included a card with Baden Powell on it as Chief Scout with Scouts in the background
– A set of 48 cards released by Lyons Maid Ice Cream of Famous People had Baden Powell again in is role  as Chief Scout
with Scouts in the background

Brooke Bond - BP
Lyons Maid - BP

Other Countries

A number of countries outside the UK also released collectors cards, below are ones  I have come across while researching this page mainly through the listings on e-bay.

Asia:
 The Siam Tobacco Company from Thailand who released sets of Cards with text in both English & Thai,

South Africa
The United Tobacco Company from South Africa released sets that included a set depicting Scout Badges with the rear of the Card having the Badge requirements.

France
In France in 1951 Chocolat Suchard released a set of 200 made up of 20 subsets of 10, Scout & Guide Cards along with an Album titled “La Vie Fiere  Et Joyeuse Des Scouts” or  “The Proud and joyful Life of  the Scouts”, 

Belgium
In 1960 Jacques of Belgium release a set of 24 Scouting themed cards that were included in their chocolate bars, the rear of the cards contained a description in both French & Flemish

Spain
In 1913 Spanish  Pharmaceutical company  released a set of 50 Scouting themed cards on the back on the packaging for one of their  Piperazina drug, each card depicted a different Scouting activity or event and the rear gave a description in Spanish

In the 1920’s Spanish  Chocolate Company Chocolate Pi  Barcelona released a set of 30 cards titled  “Boy – Scouts, Exploradores Españoles – Telégrafos y Banderas” the set depicted Scouts holding semaphore flags with each card representing a different letter of the alphabet, on the rear of each card there was a history/ description in Spanish with the lower portion assigned to the chocolate advertising, in this case: “Chocolate Pi, Barcelona”.

 America
American Chewing Gum Company Goudey who were well known for the Baseball themed Collectors Cards also released cards on various other themes which in 1933 included a set of  48  Scout themed Cards

For anyone interested in starting a collection of these cards, a search of E-bay will come up with a large number of sellers selling individual, part sets or whole sets  of these cards as both originals and reproductions.

Below is a selection of cards that were available at the time

For further images take a look at New York Public Library Digital Collections Website where you will find over 600 images of Scouts on Cigarette Cards covering a wide range of Scouting subjects