T215 Red Cross Baseball Cards

Product Details

T215 cards were distributed in two different forms through packages of Red Cross tobacco around New Orleans. The first series appeared in 1910 and ran through 1912, while the second was issued in 1912 or 1913. Despite differences between the two types, they are all lumped in together under the same catalog number.

Like many tobacco card sets from the early 20th century, the fronts feature a lithograph of a player surrounded by a white border. Below the picture, the player's name appears with the city (and sometimes league) of the team he played for. Type 1 cards feature the text in brown, while Type 2 cards are printed in blue ink. Both types have the same back, which is a horizontal advertisement for Red Cross tobacco, along with what many war buffs will recognize as the German Iron Cross.

Though sometimes confused with T206 cards, Red Cross cards closely resemble T213 Type 2 cards. Like most T-series cards originating from Louisiana, they're scarce.

Key T215 Red Cross Baseball Cards:

• Ty Cobb
• Christy Mathewson (Dark Cap)
• Christy Mathewson (White Cap)
• Walter Johnson
• Cy Young

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