Greys Cigarettes were produced by United Kingdom Tobacco Company and our Bullnose is based on a pack of 10’s and this is our 39th vehicle in the range. After a couple of recent letters discussing cigarette cards I thought it such a shame that we don’t see these as many of them as we used to. There was a time when cards appeared in a variety of products particularly Tea. How did the idea begin? In America during the 1880's cards known as 'stiffeners' were inserted into paper packets of cigarettes to reinforce the packaging and so to protect the contents, someone (believed to be an American journalist) had the idea of advertising by printing a picture and descriptive details on them. From about 1901 Cigarette Cards really caught on and thousands of different sets were issued by over 300 tobacco companies both in England and America. Many sets are still regarded as miniature reference books with illustrations and texts absolutely correct. Children of the time used to stand outside tobacconists asking smokers for their cards, they were then kept to make up sets and sometimes they’d try and win more by playing games with the cards and hopefully winning them. Some sets today are valuable especially those printed, but withheld or withdrawn for some reason. In 1917 a shortage of materials due to the First World War stopped the production of cards and they did not reappear until 1922.

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