| 1968/69 Footballers (Yellow backs) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Football next to team name variation.
Some of the cards in this set have a picture of a football on the front,
next to the team name, while others do not. This is considered a variation,
rather than an error. Perhaps the cards were produced in two lots, with
the football forgotten from one of the lots. The two cards shown have been randomly selected to show this feature. The cards which do not have the football are numbers 2, 12, 19, 25, 32, 40, 44, 47, 48, 63, 65, 77, 78, 79, 82, 83, 86, 87, 88, 89, 91, 92, 93, 95, 96, 100 and 101. Card number 71, Joe Baker, is known with both a football and a non-football version. The version without the football is rarer, is therefore considered the error card. |
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| Card number variations. Card numbers 6 and 48 appear to have their card numbers printed in a smaller font than all other cards in the set (see pictures). There is not an obvious explanation for this. |
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| 1969/70 Football (Green backs) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Card number variations. Green back cards from Series 1 and 2 (numbers 1 to 117) have a card number on the rear without a full-stop. Cards from Series 3 all have a full-stop after the number. |
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| Duplicate cards 117. There are two cards in this set with number 117. The David Woodfield card does not have the full-stop after the card number, and is included on the Series 2 checklist. This card is therefore accepted as being part of Series 2. The Tommy Lawrence card does include the full-stop, and is included on the Series 3 checklist, and is therefore accepted as being part of Series 3. This means that the green back set has a high card number of 170, but includes 171 cards plus three checklists. |
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| Series 2 checklist variation.
The 2nd series checklist begins a sequence of variations in A&BC Gum
checklists lasting until 1973/74! It appears as if A&BC Gum produced
an early or trial version, and then updated it closer to the actual production
run of the cards, often making last minute changes. A number of cards mentioned
on the checklists may therefore never have been produced. For the Green backs the 2nd series checklist reflects a change in style from Series 1, where the player name and team was printed, to the Series 3, where only the player name appears. One version of the Series 2 checklist includes the team name (the 4-column version), while the other doesn't (the 5-column version). Perhaps surprisingly the more accurate checklist of the two does not include the team names.
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| Allan Clarke reprint (card number 29). Allan Clarke was transferred from Leicester City to Leeds United in June 1969 in a high profile, £165,000, transfer. It is likely that this transfer coincided with the production run of the Green backs in time for the 1969/70 season. In order to ensure that they captured the event A&BC produced a second version of the Allan Clarke card with the text 'Transferred to Leeds United' on the front. There was no change made to the back of the card. |
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| Colin Suggett reprint (card number 54). Colin Suggett was transferred from Sunderland to W.B.A. in July 1969. A&BC reflected this transfer through a second version of this card with the text 'Transferred to West Brom. Alb.' on the front. There was no change made to the back of the card. |
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| David Sadler reprint (card number 125). David Sadler played for Manchester United from 1963 until 1973. Although he was not transferred within the timeframe of the A&BC print run there are two completely different versions of this card. The two cards have different front pictures, and different text on the rear. One of the cards has the full-stop after the card number, and uses the same image from the 1968/69 Yellow backs (though resized and reversed, an old trick, see pictures). However, the green back text is quite different and his place of birth has been changed, from Yalding to Maidstone. The other green back card has no full-stop after the number, has the same place of birth as the yellow back card, and a similar (though different) biography. This card tends to be rarer than the 'full-stop' green card. It is not clear which of these two cards came first. The 'full-stop' card suggests that it was part of the original Series 3 run. The fact that it uses the same image as the previous year's yellow backs also suggests that they were struggling with their Sadler card. Perhaps it was replaced when the new image became available, although if this were the case why would they change the place of birth, biography and Football Quiz? |
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| Frank McLintock reprint (card number
132). There appears to be no reason
for this reprint. The photo stays the same (though is resized) and the text
is changed. The original card starts "Arsenal's captain,...",
while the newer version starts "The brains behind...". One possibility is that A&BC mixed up the Scottish Blue back set, which includes the larger photo and text which begins "Arsenal's captain". Interestingly, and wrongly, the Scottish card lists McLintock as a centre-forward! |
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| Bobby Moncur reprint (card number 145). Two versions exist of the Bobby Moncur card. The pictures are similar, though different. The text on the rear of the cards is the same, though one has 'Football Facts' and the other a 'Football Quiz'. The original Series 3 card has the team name 'Newcastle United' printed on the front and rear, as does every other Newcastle card in the set (view here). However, the apparently 'newer' version has the team name 'Newcastle'. Does this mean that a new error was introduced in the reprint? To add further to the confusion, the image used on the original, 'full-stop' version of the card is the same as used for the following year's orange back series (see picture). |
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| John Sissons reprint (card number 151). The Johnny Sissons mystery is similar to that of David Sadler. He was not transferred during the period of the production run, so there is no obvious reason to reprint the card. The photo has been changed, the biography changed and there is a different 'Football Fact'. This one defies all logic... |
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| 1970/71 Footballer (Orange backs) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Brian O'Neil reprint (card number 98). Brian O'Neil was signed by Southampton from Burnley for £75,000 in the summer of 1970, just about the time A&BC would have been preparing and printing the cards for the Orange back series. In response to this A&BC coloured in his shirt (you can tell this as there is a player in Burnley colours in the background) and changed the team name on the front of the card, but apparently forgot to change the team name or text on the back. In a later reprint they changed the team name and rewrote the player biography. |
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| 2nd Series checklist.
The 2nd Series checklist, card number 85, has cards listed wrongly in the
sequence 144 to 160. The checklist has Terry Alcock as 144, through to Neil
Young as 160. John Angus is actually card 144, and Alcock is card 145. All
of the cards listed in the checklist from 144 to 159 are numbered +1 on
the actual cards e.g. Peter Dobing is 155 on the checklist but is card number
156. Neil Young appears on card 218 (not 160), and is correctly listed as
218 on the 3rd Series checklist. So, in summary, there is a numbering error
on the 2rd Series checklist where these numbers do not match the actual
card numbers. The Checklist has card 169 as David Tayne, whereas it should be David Payne. |
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3rd Series checklist reprint (card
number 170). The Series 3 checklist
card comes in two varieties. The first references cards to 255, the other
to 256. There are differences in the players listed on the cards, summarised
in the table below. The cards listed on the 255 version e.g. Hill, Barnard,
Howe etc. are not known to exist. At the bottom of the 255 version is printed
'Subject to change'. Card 256 (Checklist) is not known to exist.
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| Jimmy Greenhoff / John O'Rourke
reprint (card numbers 174 and 216).
The John O'Rourke / Jimmy Greenhoff error is one of the more obvious A&BC
ever made by simply mixing up the photos of the two players. Click to see
the
Tony Coakley letter explaining this variant. The letter states 'this
mistake was spotted and immediately the printers corrected it, but unfortunately
a certain amount of cards were manufactured and released into the shops'.
In a later reprint A&BC corrected the photos.
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| 1971/72 Footballer (Purple backs) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
2nd Series
checklist (card number 170). This Series 2 checklist is an amazingly
inaccurate reference. What was going on at A&BC? Did they allocate this
task to the work experience boy? The checklist covers cards from 110 to
153 on the front, and then 154 to 219 on the back, plus it lists 302 as
the Series 3 checklist? Series 3 only ran to 290 cards (though A&BC
may not have designed it by the time they were producing Series 2), and
the checklist ended up being card 277 (see entry below). The many differences
between the checklist and the actual cards are listed in the table below.
To the best of my knowledge the errors on this card were never corrected
by a reprint. Thanks to
Tony's
Webspace for highlighting this card.
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| 3rd Series checklist reprint (card number 277). The purple back series numbers up to 290. However, A&BC produced a Series 3 checklist which numbered up to 293. It appears that they produced the 293 checklist first, then realised the error (or changed their mind about how many they were going to produce), and so issued a new checklist (labelled 'New Checklist!)'. |
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Stamp
Album checklist. The Footballer Stamp
Album , issued to store the Club crests and Superstar stamps has a 'complete
checklist' on the back cover. There are some interesting anomalies between
this checklist and the actual cards.
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| 1972/73 Footballer (Orange/Red backs) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Series
checklist reprint (card number 154).
Two versions of this checklist exist, one numbering up to 218 and another
numbering up to 219.
The 219 version checklist is obviously the later edition (it has the words 'Revised checklist' on the back), including players from the promoted clubs from 1971/72 (Norwich and Birmingham) and removing some players from the relegated clubs (Nottingham Forest and Huddersfield Town). The updated checklist also has the spelling corrected on card 204 from Malcolm McDonald to Malcolm MacDonald, and card 213 Jack Witham corrected to Whitham. It is not thought that any of the cards which appeared on the 218 version checklist and which were replaced on the 219 version were ever printed i.e. you will not find a card number 112 with Terry Dolan. |
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| Roger Morgan reprint (card number 179). There are two versions of the Roger Morgan card, though it is not clear why. One shows his head and shoulders only, while the other shows the head and torso. The backs of the two cards are identical. |
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| 1972/73 Footballer - Scottish | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Card number 178. For the only known time A&BC produced a set with two different coloured backs. Series 1 (cards 1 to 89) had blue backs, while Series 2 (90 to 179) had orange/red backs. However, card number 178 is known with both coloured backs. |
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| 1973/74 Footballer (Blue backs) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
2nd Series checklist (card number
182). Two versions of this checklist
exist, one numbered to 264 and the other to 261. The '261 version' is the
later, and therefore more accurate version though it is still not an accurate
checklist for the actual set. Cards 262 (George Armstrong) and 264 (Billy
Ingham) from the '264 version' were never produced. The Marvin Hinton card
is numbered 263, so there is no card number 235 in the set. The cards in
the table below from the '264 version' e.g. Giles, Macari, Holton etc. are
not known to exist.
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| John Toshack reprint (card number 241). In a remarkable coincidence with the previous set, one card (John Toshack) has two versions, a full body shot and a head and shoulders only shot. The two cards have different text and cartoons on the back. Interestingly, the 'head and shoulders' card has a section 'Goals', which appears on the rear of the 1st series cards but not the 2nd series cards, suggesting that the Toshack head and shoulders card was originally intended as a Series 1 card. |
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