Vintage Card Of The Month: 1972 Primrose Superman

 

This month’s VCoM is another traveler from across the pond. In 1972 the Primrose Confectionary Company inserted mini Superman cards in to packs of Superman Sweet Cigarettes. As a child of the ‘70s I remember the fun of “smoking” candy cigarettes and blowing out sugar smoke but I was born in 1972 (and a continent away) so I was a bit too young to pull any of these cool Superman cards. For some reason the cards have a 1967 copyright but they were not inserted in to the candy cigarette packs until 1972 so there is some confusion when it comes to finding them, most people sell them under the 1972 (they are also graded as 1972) but some people still list them under the 1967 copyright date.

The cards are rather small, 1 5/16 x 2 9/16, which is even smaller than early-20^th Century tobacco cards and modern day minis. The cards are printed on a light weight paper which has led to them sometimes being called “paper thin” cards. The cards are brightly illustrated and the set, which contains 50 cards, depicts scenes ranging from Superman fighting aliens and bad guys to saving innocent people and even punching a shark.

This card is #43, Space Nightmare. He is captured by enemy Spacemen in an attempt to have him fight for them against Earth. There are two creases in the upper right corner and the corners are rounded but still a solid card.