Aeroplanes-Series B, CARD-O Gum, Leaf Gum, R112-3, USA

1940-1941 “Aeroplanes - Series B” (R112-3)
Leaf Gum Company, Chicago, Illinois, USA

Series Title: “Aeroplanes - Series B”
American Card Catalog Reference No.: R112-3
Manufactured by: Leaf Gum Company, Chicago, Illinois, USA
Packaged With: CARD-O Chewing Gum
Number of Cards: 82 total: 28 Plain back cards, 27 Joker back cards,27 Stag-Joker back cards
Numbering: Unnumbered
Card Dimensions: 2¼ × 3½ inches (PLC Format)
Circa: 1940-1941
Checklist: Download R112-3 Checklist

Overview

According to The Card Collectors Bulletin (issue No. 48, June 1, 1947), the cards of this group were all issued by Leaf Gum. Many, if not all, of the artwork drawings of airplanes and warships in all five sets appeared in Whitman’s patriotic books. The book noted below contains the artwork for all the cards in this set. The Card Collectors Bulletin also reported that on 1 December 1948 Leaf Gum Company dumped its surplus CARD-O gum cards on the market after the war. A partially-full Leaf display was purchased by a collector and was found to contain airplane cards from Series B, C, D and the unmarked, so-called Mixed series of 46. The gum was wrapped in individual sticks and purchasers apparently got a stick and their choice of card for a penny.

Aeroplanes - Series B

The R112-3 Aeroplanes - Series B contains twenty-seven (27) basic aircraft images with a mirror-image duplicate card of the XP-42 which brings the total to 28 images. There were also two Supermarine Spitfire cards: (1) SUPERMARINE SPITFIRE (England) marked FZL and (2) SUPERMARINE SPITFIRE (Britain) marked QJF. The QJF uses the same back as the FZL card. The two XP-42 and the two Spitfire cards would explain the difference between the notation on the back 26 cards versus the actual number of 28 cards. However, there were a total of three distinct varieties of the set issued by the Leaf Gum Company via their CARD-O Chewing Gum. To make things a little more confusing, Whitman Publishing Company of Racine, Wisconsin also issued two series of Zoom Airplane Card Games that are often confused as being a R112-3 variety. The Whitman Airplane Card Games share much of the artwork that is used in the R112-3 series. It should be noted that the Whitman Publishing Company is the original source of the artwork used in the series. Their wartime booklets contain the original artwork used with this series and many others series such as the Tydol UO-1 series.

Accord to the late veteran Airplane Card Collector, Richard Dahlquist, of Holden MA, the XP-42 (facing right) card appears only once in the series. It is only in the cards with the Plain Text backs series. The total number of cards in the R112-3 series is therefore 82 cards. Image guides for the three varieties are shown below. The card dimensions are 2¼ × 3½ inches with rounded corners. The American Card Catalog reference number for the set is R112-3.

Image-Guide

The following Image Guides are divided into three groups showing the three different types of card backs. Behind each of the following thumbnail images are 600-dpi images of the fronts and backs of each card.

R112-3 Plain-Back Series (28-cards)

R112-3 Joker-Back Series (27-cards)

R112-3 Stag/Joker-Back Series (27-cards)

Wrapper and Retail Store Display Box

All we have at this time is the information that we obtained from The Sport Americana® PRICE GUIDE to the Non-Sports Cards 1930-1960, Vol. 2 by Christopher Benjamin. According to Benjamin, CARD-O Chewing Gum stick wrapper purchasers got one stick of gum and their choice of a card for a penny. The Retail Store Display box shown below came with a lift cover. Each box also contained a stand-up insert panel with the same design as the cover lid. We are not sure which of the many CARD-O series (R112-3, R112-4, R112-12, etc.) used the wrapper and the box show below. Any insight into this would be appreciated.

CARD-O Gum War Planes of Allied Nations Box

Albums versus Original Artwork

To the best of our knowledge, Leaf Gum did not issue any companion albums with this series. However, the Whitman Publishing Company of Racine, Wisconsin issued a series of wartime booklets that contained the original artwork used by Leaf Gum for this series. The artwork is spread over at least six of these 3⅝ × 5¾ inch booklets. The artwork was also used in the Tydol UO-1 Aeroplane series, the Spaulding Krullers D87 and DC-6 series, and a similar Cracker Jack series. To date, we know of the following six booklets. There might be more of them out there, but we have not seen them.

American Airplanes, Whitman Publishing Company, 1940, by John B. Walker

War Planes, Whitman Publishing Company, 1940, by John B. Walker

Airplanes of the U.S.A., Whitman Publishing Company, 1942, by John B. Walker

Modern War Planes of the World, Whitman Publishing Company, 1942, by John B. Walker

War Planes of the World, Whitman Publishing Company, 1943, by John B. Walker

Airplanes of the U.S.A., Whitman Publishing Company, by John B. Walker

Checklist

CARD-O Aeroplanes - Series B (R112-3) CARD-O Chewing Gum, Leaf Gum Company, United States Checklist
Plain Back (28)	Joker Back (27)	Stag Back (27)	Aircraft • Country
			Airacobra • United States
			Armstrong Whitworth Whitley • England
			Bell Airacuda • United States
			Boeing XB-15 • United States
			Bristol-Blenhein (sic) • England
			Caudron C710 Cyclone • France
			Curtiss Hawk III • Turkey
			Curtiss Hawk IV • China
			Curtiss XP-42 (facing left) • United States
	n/a	n/a	Curtiss XP-42 (facing right - Plain Back only) • United States
			Fairey Battle • England
			Focke Wulf Stieglitz • Sweden
			Fokker D.21 • Denmark
			Fokker T9 • Netherlands
			I.5 • Russia
			Koolhoven F.K. 58 • Netherlands
			Latecoere 298 • France
			Lockheed XP-38 • United States
			Marinens M.F. 11 • Norway
			Northrup 8A-1 (sic) • China
			Potez 63 • France
			Renard R.36 • Belgium
			Seversky P-35 • United States
			Supermarine Spitfire (FZL) • England
			Supermarine Spitfire (QJF) • Britain The Back of the card says England
			Vickers Wellington III • England
			Vultee VII GB • Turkey
			Vultee V-12A • United States
Wrapper and Store Display Box
	1-Cent CARD-O Wrapper
	1-Cent CARD-O War Planes of Allied Nations Retail Store Box
Companion Booklets Containing CARD-O Artwork
	A Guide to American Airplanes, John B. Walker, Whitman Publishing, 1940
	Warplanes of All Nations, John B. Walker, Whitman Publishing, 1940
	A Guide to Airplanes of the U.S.A., John B. Walker, Whitman Publishing, 1942
	Modern Warplanes of the World, John B. Walker, Whitman Publishing, 1942
	Warplanes of the World, John B. Walker, Whitman Publishing, 1943
	Airplanes of the U.S.A., John B. Walker, Whitman Publishing

References

Dahlquist, Richard (RIP): Numerous telephone, email, and snail-mail conversations.
Shupek, John A.: Card images from the Skytamer Archive Digital Image Database
Kramer, Albert (Al) B.: Cards scans from the Kramer Collection
Kuchta, Vladislav: 2/19/2010 email, Scan of CARD-O Retail Sore Display Box
Sheppard, Christopher: 8/4/2008 email, Airplanes of the U.S.A. Booklet scan and information
Benjamin, Christopher: The Sport Americana Price Guide to the Non-Sports Cards 1930-1960 No. 2, Edgewater Book Company, Cleveland, Ohio, ISBN 0-937424-66-8, 1993, pp. 40-48.