In 1887 Allen &
Ginter issued their first series of tobacco portrait cards. The set of 50 was
entitled "The World's Champions", and distributed nationally. Later, when
cataloged the series became designated N28. One of the factors that makes this
series so desirable is the large group of 10 well known baseball players. The
highlight hall of fame baseball players include Tim Keefe, Cap Anson, John
Clarkson, Charles Comiskey, Mike Kelly, and John Ward.
High grade HOF'ers from the N28 series
always sell for a high premium.
The remainder of
the set included wrestlers, oarsmen, boxers, rifle shooters, billiard and pool
players. The N28's are a nice eye opener into the beauty of 19th century
tobacco cards.
This NRMT example of Tim Keefe is
extraordinary. It is difficult to find any flaws. All corners come
to a point and the edges are sharp. There is no surface wear. The back
is totally clean, and with 95/5 centered which is quite possibly the reason for the NM grade.
A solid candidate for at least a 7.5 in my opinion. One of the higher
grade examples you could hope to find of this key HOFer from the N28 Allen &
Ginter set. Of 136 examples graded to date by PSA, there are only 11 cards
that grade higher than a PSA 7.
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