Allen & Ginter tobacco cards from the 19th century are among the most collected and valued cards of the era. Build your knowledge of every set produced by the Allen & Ginter Tobacco Company. Checklists, images, pricing and variant details are all included. Build you knowledge, value your collection, and enjoy this guide.
Category: Allen & Ginter
The checklist for the Cigarette Making Girls set (N46) is fairly sparse. The cards picture women making cigarettes and are sepia toned. There are two main variations in this set, on the table pictured on each card is either the text “Cigarette Making” or the text “The Cigarette Maker”.
The cards are blank-backed and have the text “Virginia Brights” at the bottom.
The cards are numbered but not all numbers have been found so the complete set size is unknown. A logical guess would be 50 cards like many of A&G’s other sets and the fact that a number 49 has been found. A total of 25 different cards have been reported. All the reported numbers with text are detailed below.
Below is a cabinet card which is similar to the images on the N46 cards (of which I haven’t been able to find any pictures…)
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Cigarette Making Girls (Total # Unknown)
“Cigarette Making” Numbers Found
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11, 28, 29, 30, 33, 35, 39, 42, 43, 47, 49
“The Cigarette Maker” Numbers Found
29, 32, 33, 38, 40
UPDATE: Many thanks to a collector who let me know he had graded copies of #’s 1 and 4 in the “Cigarette Making” series. To my knowledge, the #1 card is not widely known of so this is a great find. Even better he submitted the images below for use here!
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The Allen & Ginter Views set (ACC# N53) is an extremely rare set, with little information available.
The set shows pictures of U.S. Monuments and only 3 cards have been identified to date. The cards can be found with and without the company name. They are unnumbered and were found in packs of Virginia Brights Cigarettes.
I haven’t been able to track down any images for this set yet, will update this post when I do.
Views (3)
- Bartholdi’s Statue of Liberty – 2 variations, height of stature either 3/4 or 1 inch tall
- Bunker Hill Monument, Boston
- War and State Department, Washington
The Allen & Ginter Actors and Actresses set (ACC# N45) is a very large, highly varied set. This is a photographic, sepia-toned set, numbering over 2,000 known cards. Because of the size of the set I’m not including a checklist (maybe a future project), but here is some of the general information and a few representative images.
The cards come in different sizes with different brands and formats. Some are numbered and many have the Actor’s name on the front, but some do not. The most common brands are Virginia Brights and Dixie Cigarettes, other brands include Our Little Beauties and Opera Puffs. Most of the cards have blank backs.
Other companies (Lone Jack and Marshak & Deutch) also issued some of these same subjects.
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Here’s the checklist for the Allen & Ginter Dogs set (ACC# N47).
This is a photographic, sepia-toned set with a Virginia Brights cigarettes ad appearing at the bottom of each card.
The cards are unnumbered and unnamed. They are also extremely rare. There have been 9 different cards reported to date and additional information regarding this set is scarce to say the least.
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Dogs (9)
- Poodle
- Pug
- Dark Setter
- Light Labrador
- Dark Labrador
- Pug
- White Pom
- Light Daschund
- White Dog (sitting on ledge)
Here’s the checklist for the Allen & Ginter Racehorses set (ACC# N52).
This is a photographic, sepia-toned set with a Virginia Brights cigarettes ad appearing at the top of each card.
The cards are not numbered individually. Currently there are 37 known cards, but there may be more as a set size of 37 seems odd. I have not been able to find a decent picture from this set which also points to it being fairly rare. I will update this post when I find one.
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Racehorses (37)
- Adelaide
- Almont
- American Girl
- American Pilot
- Amos C.M. Clay
- Belmont
- Cobden
- Cohanet
- Driver
- Elsie Good
- Eltham Lass
- Endfield
- Galatea
- Gen’l Grant’s Arabian
- Gen’l Knox
- George Wilkes
- Goldsmith’s Maid
- Green Mountain Maid
- Hannis
- Hero of Thorndale
- Jay Gould
- Jennie V
- Kate
- King Wilkes
- Lady Patriot
- Lady Thorn
- Leamington
- Lexington
- Little Phil
- Maud S.
- Piedmont
- Planet
- Rysdyk’s Hambletonian
- Smuggler
- Tennessee Wilkes
- Wedgewood
- Woodford Membrino
Here’s the checklist for the Allen & Ginter Presidents of the United States set (ACC# N51).
This is a photographic, sepia-toned set that was distributed with Virginia Brights cigarettes. There are two types in the set with the differences being in the size and layout of the Virginia Brights ad at the bottom of the cards.
The cards are not numbered individually, but there is a numbered checklist on the back. The set is thought to have been issued between 1885 and 1889.
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Presidents of the United States (22)
- George Washington
- John Adams
- Thomas Jefferson
- James Madison
- James Monroe
- John Quincy Adams
- Andrew Jackson
- Martin Van Buren
- Wm Henry Harrison
- John Tyler
- James K. Polk
- Zachary Taylor
- Millard Fillmore
- Franklin Pierce
- James Buchanan
- Abraham Lincoln
- Andrew Johnson
- Ulysses S. Grant
- Rutherford B. Hayes
- James A. Garfield
- Chester A. Arthur
- Grover Cleveland
The Famous Ships set (ACC# N50) is a 48 card series of sepia-toned ships of the era. This set was issued by several manufacturers after the 1890 merger (most likely in 1895), including Allen & Ginter (Virginia Brights), Duke (Honest Long Cut), Kimball (Vanity Fair), Kinney (Sweet Caporal) and some anonymous makers.
There are two back types; one with an ad on the back (45 cards), the others blank backed. There are also three cards with “Virginia Brights Cigarettes” text of the front, the last three listed in the checklist. The cards are unnumbered and appear in the checklist below in alphabetical order by Country.
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Famous Ships (48)
- Arg. Republic 9 De Julio
- Brazil – Aquidaban
- Brazil – Republica
- Brazil – Tiradentes
- France – Arethuse
- France – Hussard
- France – Jean Bart
- Germany – Kaiserin Augusta
- Germany – See Adler
- Germany – Van Spejik
- Great Britain – Australia
- Great Britain – Blake
- Great Britain – Magicienne
- Great Britain – Tartar
- Italy – Dogali
- Italy – Etna
- Italy – Giovani Bausan
- Misc – Pinta
- Misc – Nina
- Misc – Santa Maria
- Misc – Defender, 1895
- Misc – Valkyrie III, 1895 (Coast visible)
- Misc – Valkyrie III, 1895 (no background)
- Russia – Dimitri Donskoi
- Russia – General Admiral
- Russia – Rynda
- Spain – Fridano
- Spain – Infanta Ysabel
- Spain – Nueva Espana
- Spain – Reina Regenta
- USN – Atlanta
- USN – Baltimore
- USN – Bancroft
- USN – Bennington
- USN – Charleston
- USN – Chicago
- USN – Concord
- USN – Cushing
- USN – Dolphin
- USN – Miantonomoh
- USN – Newark
- USN – Philadelphia
- USN – San Francisco
- USN – Vesuvius
- USN – Yorktown
- The Big Four (Virginia Brights Front)
- Mayflower (Virginia Brights Front)
- Puritan (Virginia Brights Front)
Just saw an awesome advertising card from Allen & Ginter on eBay that I haven’t seen before. It shows Grover Cleveland and has a beautiful silk inset. This particular card has been graded by SGC. I’ll need to do some research on this and I’ll post more info when I find it.
According to the information in the auction, the card was produced in partnership with Stevengraph for the 1893 Columbian Exposition in Chicago.
The card is listed for $2,500 BIN and ends today.
Here’s the checklist for the Allen & Ginter World’s Sovereigns set (ACC# N34). This set was issued around 1889 and is one of the most ornate Allen & Ginter designs. These cards are not numbered. There’s 50 cards total in this set.
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World’s Sovereigns (50)
- President of the Argentine Republic
- Emperor of Austria
- Empress of Austria
- King of Bavaria
- King of Belgium
- Queen of Belgium
- Emperor of Brazil
- Empress of Brazil
- Governor General of Canada
- President of Chili
- President of Republic of Colombia
- President of Costa Rica
- King of Denmark
- Queen of Denmark
- Queen of England
- President of France
- Emperor of Germany
- Empress of Germany
- King of Greece
- Queen of Greece
- King of Holland
- Queen of Holland
- President of Honduras
- Governor General of India
- King of Italy
- Queen of Italy
- Mikado of Japan
- Empress of Japan
- President of Mexico
- King of Montenegro
- Sultan of Morocco
- Shah of Persia
- King of Portugal
- Queen of Portugal
- King of Roumania
- Czar of Russia
- Czarina of Russia
- King of the Sandwich Islands
- King of Saxony
- King of Servia
- King of Siam
- King of Spain
- Queen Regent of Spain
- King of Sweden
- Queen of Sweden
- President of Switzerland
- Sultan of Turkey
- President of the United States
- President of Uruguay
- President of Venezuela
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