One of the most enigmatic tobacco card sets of all time is represented in our eBay auctions this week. We have six cards from the T209 Contentnea set issued more than a century ago. Featuring minor league players from the Virginia League, Carolina Association and Eastern Carolina League, they were issued only in some Mid-Atlantic states, near the areas where the players plied their trade. They are scarce in any grade. The cards were issued in two distinctly different styles. “Series One” features 16 color cards created from artwork. The player’s name is printed in blue at the bottom and the cards are quite striking. Series Two consists of black and white photos and contains more than 200 cards. It’s a very unique, realistic look at lower level pro baseball of the time. The photos are fascinating. Many of the players in the T209 series simply aren’t found in any other set. The T209-1 series was issued in 1910 as a promotional vehicle for Contentnea cigarettes, the brand having named after a river near the American Tobacco Company. The larger, second series is believed to have been distributed later that year. Some believe the company went with photographs in its second series because they were cheaper to produce than the lithographs that make up the first 16 cards. The backs of the cards contain an ad for the cigarettes and a list of the leagues represented in the set. Few Contentnea cards come up for auction in the hobby and serious collectors of old tobacco cards often take advantage of the chance to add them to their collections.
