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A&BC Chewing Gum.
If you want to see A&BC cards from 1965/66 to 1979/80 click
here. If you want to see A&BC Scottish
cards click here. A&BC Chewing
Gum, formed in 1949 (click
here
for a company history) produced a number of football cards in the
period from 1954 until 1965/66. While they are not directly relevant
to this site they are listed and described below due to the level of
interest from collectors. I am not an expert on these earlier A&BC
cards, so if you have anything to correct or add please feel free to
email. |
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1954 |
'All Sport' series.
A set of 120 black and white photograph cards with plain backs. The
chewing gum was issued in a wrapper which said 'All Sport, Picture
Bubble Gum'. There was a coupon on the wrapper which you could use to
send away with 1/- to 'All Sports", 59 Oak Grove, Cricklewood, London,
NW3. The coupons could be used to acquire an album 'Send 1/- and only 5
coupons for your super giant 20 page album containing a full history of
all the sportsmen and sportswomen in this series'.
Number in set: 120 (36 footballers). |
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1958/59 |
Topstars - Famous Footballers. A&BC Chewing Gum's first
dedicated football card sets. There are two series of these cards,
numbers 1 to 46 (Series 1) and 47 to 92 (Series 2). For Series 1 there
are two versions of the set, commonly referred to as 'Planet', due to an
offer printed at the top of some of the cards. In Series 1, the 'Planet'
cards have black and red backs, while the non-Planet cards have blue and
red backs.
All cards in Series 2 have, or originally had, the Planet
offer at the top and therefore have black and red backs. The text of the offer is 'Send your name and address with 1/- P.O. for
32 page FOOTBALL ALBUM to PLANET LTD., 50 Hampstead Road, N.W. 1.
The wrapper has text which states 'Send 1 wrapper and 1/- P.O for your
TOPSTAR ALBUM'. Write your name and address on separate paper. The
address on the wrapper is A&BC Chewing Gum Ltd., London N.W. 9.
Click to view the
Topstars Album
of Famous Footballers.
Number in set: 92.
Checklists:
Set checklist or
Team checklist. |

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1959/60 |
Footballer. A set of
98 red backed cards issued in two series, Series 1 (1 to 49) and Series
2 (50 to 98). The backs have a 'Football Quiz', which is how this set is
often referenced.
The wrappers do not have an album offer, but state 'Manufactured under
licence with Topps Chewing Gum Inc., N.Y., U.S.A.'. This ties in with
the A&BC history which reports that Topps bought in to A&BC in 1959 (see
A&BC Chewing
Gum history Part 2).
Number in set: 98. Click for
galleries:
Series 1,
Series 2.
Checklists:
Series 1,
Series 2 or
Team checklist. |

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1960/61 |
Footballers - Black backs.
A set of 84 cards issued in two series, Series 1 (1 to 42) and Series 2 (43 to 84).
There are thought to be two wrappers with this set, perhaps one for each
series, with a price rise in between?
The wrappers state 'Send 5 wrappers and 1/- postal order with your name
and address to A.& B.C. Chewing Gum Ltd., Harold Hill, Romford, Essex
for your album'.
Number in set: 84. Click for galleries:
Series 1,
Series 2. |

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1961/62 |
Footballers.
A set of black and white photograph cards with
signatures printed over the photos, plain backs. Issued in two series,
Series 1 (1 to 32) and Series 2 (33 to 64).
Number in set: 64. Click for
set gallery. |
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1962/63 |
Footballers - Bazooka.
An attractive set of 80 cards plus two
checklists, repeating the 'colour-framed' style from the 1960/61 black
backs. I'm not sure whether this was issued as two series (i.e. one half
of the cards issued at the start of the season and the other half
later), but they do have two checklists.
Set maker:
A&BC Chewing Gum
Set details:
1962/63 Bazooka
Number in set: 82
Gallery:
Cards 1-40,
Cards 41-82
Checklists:
Set checklist,
Team
checklist |
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1963/64 |
Footballers - Make-a-Photo.
Issued in two series, Series 1 (1 to 55) and Series 2 (56 to 110).
Number in set: 110. |
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1964/65 |
Footballers - Quiz.
A&BC continue to grow the size of the sets, this time issuing the cards
in three series, Series 1 (1 to 58), Series 2 (59 to 103) and Series 3
(104 to 149).
Number in set: 149. |
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