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The 1962 Topps Civil War News card series is apparently one of the most collected trading card sets of all time, according to several noted card collectors, and is offered here for the first time. This complete set of the 1962 Civil War News collector card set, containing 88 cards including an unmarked checklist, was acquired directly from the original owner who collected this series as a child in the early 1960’s. Approximately 20 years later as an adult, the owner improved the collection by purchasing and replacing damaged and/or missing cards and subsequently placed this fine set of collector cards in protective, acid-free plastic sleeves.
In 1962 Topps released this 88 card set to commemorate the centennial of the American Civil War and to educate youngsters about this great conflict. The front of each card has a black lettered title, within a white rectangular box, which shows the date and location of the historical event being depicted. The pictures on the front of the cards contain colorful, bright images of war (some of which being very graphic, with certain scenes depicting fictional characters and/or fanciful scenes). Most of the cards in the series were painted by the famous pulp artist, Norman Saunders. The card backs are gray with a reddish brown border (with the card series number located in the bottom right-hand corner), and are presented in a newspaper like format to describe the event pictured on the front of the card.
Originally these sets were called Civil War bubblegum cards by Topps, because they were sold in one and five cent wax packs with gum and replica Confederate money. However, due to the newspaper journal like format on the back of each card with the heading Civil War News, this series is now known fondly as the “Civil War News” to the card collector community.
As these cards were mass produced in the 1960’s to mainly sell gum to children and probably not considered being highly collectible in future markets, the quality control measures during that period were inferior to the standardized methods used today to manufacture collector cards. As such, it is very difficult to find this series of cards with perfectly centered fronts and backs and in mint, pristine condition. Unmarked checklist cards (#88) are particularly rare, as most children that collected the series marked it to note which cards they had in their collection. NOTE: The set listed here contains both an unmarked checklist (in excellent condition) and the original owners marked checklist used as a child.
This set has not been professionally graded, but appears to be in very good to excellent condition, considering that these cards are almost 60 years old. There are no folds and/or creases noted on the corners and each card has sharp details front and back with little to no yellowing, wear/rubbing marks, and/or soiling, etc. As mentioned above, some of the cards are off center on either the front or back, with only a handful being miss-cut or off center on both sides due to the production process. That being said, cards #4, #10, #22 have small soil marks on the back of the cards and cards #11, #16, #27, #64 have minor soil marks on the edge(s) along the front of the card.
We have attempted to provide accurate descriptions of the cards in this collector set and have identified cards with minor condition issues. Please carefully review all of the detailed pictures on this page to determine exactly what you are purchasing.
Unfortunately it is not uncommon for a small percentage of unscrupulous buyers to substitute collector cards with less valuable cards and then return the purchased set of cards to the seller for a full refund. As such, our normal refund policy cannot be honored on this item and once purchased cannot be returned for a refund.
This set includes one complete set of 88 cards and an additional 9 damaged, cut or marked cards originally collected by the owner and replaced accordingly, to make a finer and more collectible complete set.
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