Non-Sports Card of the Day: 1909-1911 T29 American Tobacco Animal Series Elephant

Today's non-sports card is from the famous T29 Animals set that was issued by American Tobacco (with Hassan cigarettes advertisements on the back) for parts of three years from 1909 to 1911. Featuring original painted works of some of the most exotic animals of the world, the set can be found at very budget-friendly prices and is a great place to start a tobacco card set. 

Although my card identified this as animal as simply "elephant," it is more accurately an Asian elephant as it has smaller ears than its counterpart, the African elephant. Asian elephants can grow to 12 feet tall and weigh over five tons. Globally, there are far fewer Asian Elephants than African with about 50,000 worldwide. 


Most Hassan sets typically were 50 cards in size but the Animals set featured two series of 40 cards each. With no on-card numbering system, the 80 cards in the set are organized alphabetically and my elephant card is #24 in the unofficial alphabetical system. These larger sized tobacco cards (which are nearly identical in width at 2-7/16" to modern day cards) were sold in larger packaged products like the cork tipped cigarettes advertised on the back of the card. 


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