A&BC Chewing Gum counter boxes
| Most visitors to this website
will know how highly collectors value the production of
A&BC Chewing Gum. From
the perspective of football card collectors their output from 1954 until
1974 was remarkable for its variety and quality. While it is still an on-going
quest to try to build up a complete history of their work, little by little
we are adding bits of the jigsaw puzzle. This task has been much much easier
through the generous contributions below, mainly from website visitors Graham
and Steve, who own most of these fine examples. Additional contributions
to the gallery will be gratefully accepted - please
email here. A&BC Chewing Gum sold football cards in packets of chewing gum. The wrappers for the gum and cards are now very collectable, since most would have been instantly discarded by the buyer as soon as they were outside of the sweet shop. Rarer still are the counter boxes which the sellers of these packets would have used to store and display the packets. Amazingly a number have survived, and this website hopes, over time, to be able to display them all. |
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| 1964/65 footballers.
The packets cost 2d, and contained two photos. There were 72 packets to
a box. This box is believed to have been used for both the English Quiz series and the Scottish Quiz series. |
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| 1966/67 footballers.
The packets cost 3d, and included six player photos (3 pairs). There were
48 packets to a box. This counter box and wrapper are believed to have been used for the English black and white cards and the Scottish colour photos. |
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1967/68 Footballers. The packets cost 3d, and included a pin-up picture.
There were 48 packets to a box. I'm not aware that there was a Scottish set of cards for the 1967/68 season. Click for gallery of England's Stars pin-up pictures. |
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| 1968/69 Footballers.
The packets cost 3d, with 48 packets to a box. The English yellow back cards were issued in two series, with the pennants given away with Series 1 and the Team Emblems with Series 2. Click for gallery of English team pennants. The Scottish yellow back cards were, I think, issued as a single series and included team pennants. Emblems were not issued with the Scottish sets. |
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| 1969/70 Footballers. The
packets cost 3d, with 48 packets to a box. The English green back cards were issued in three series, with black and white photographs given away with Series 2 and 3. The counter boxes for Series 2 and 3 have 'New series'. Tony and Douglas Coakley, past Directors of A&BC, have confirmed that the new series were issued as the season progressed to entice buyers to continue buying cards throughout a season. In 1969/70 the Scottish set of cards had blue backs and included the black and white photographs, though featuring different players from the English issue. The only player who appeared in both the English and Scottish photograph sets was Alan Gilzean, whose image appears on the counter box. Coincidence, or perhaps evidence that the same counter box was used for the English and Scottish sets (though it is not clear that the Scottish set of 77 was issued in more than one series). |
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1969/70 World Cup Giant Posters. The packets
cost 6d, with 48 packets to a box. See here for poster and card details. |
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1970/71 Footballer. The packets cost 6d,
with 48 packets to a box. The interesting thing about this counter box is that it mentions the terms 'pin-up poster' and 'superstar' on the side, perhaps addressing the mystery wrapper from the 1970/71 series. The English series is believed to have 14 pin-ups, while the Scottish series had 28 pin-ups, perhaps with the second series of pin-ups referred to as 'Superstars'. I therefore think that this counter box (kindly sent in by Steve) is from the Scottish set. |
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| 1971/72 Footballer.
The packets cost 2p, with 60 packets to a box. The English purple back cards were issued in three series, with club crests given away with Series 2 and superstar stamps given away with Series 3. The displayed box is therefore for Series 2. The Scottish purple back cards were only issued in two series and included the club crest giveaway. |
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| 1973/74 Footballer. | Counter box image not available |
| 1973/74 Giant Team posters. The packets cost 4p, with 36 packets to a box. |    |
| 1974/75 Footballer. | Counter box image not available |
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