COMC hoard: 1910 Murad College Series

By 1910, Murad, who were still relatively new to the cigarette game, had already been adding cards to their products for a few years in an attempt to attract more sales. The College Series (or, if you want to sound like a card snob, the T51's) released in either 1909 or 1910 (some people seem to think it might even have been as early as 1908), would go on to be by far their most popular card line.

Measuring roughly 2'' x 3'', they were issued in six sets of 25 cards. Each card featured a depiction of a sporting activity (not always a sport that was associated with that school) and the school emblem. There are two variations that exist through the first 50 cards, one variation says "College Series" on the back, while the other says "2nd Series". There was also a premium mail-in series (referred to as T6's) that featured the first 25 cards in the regular set, measuring 5'' x 8'' these cards could be gotten by mailing in 15 cigarette pack coupons per card. Being part of a mail-away offer, the T6's are more scarce, and therefor command a higher price tag on the secondary market.

Brown University was founded in 1764 as The College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, changing it's name to Brown University in 1804 in honor of a $5,000 donation made by Nicolas Brown, Jr.

Fun Fact: One of the schools three founding members, William Ellery, Jr., would later go on to be one of the 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence.

Founded in 1886 as Chattanooga University, the school has gone through many name changes over the years (plus a few merges with other schools, finally settling on The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga (or UTC) in 1969.

Lawrence University, named after Amos Adams Lawrence who donated $10,000 towards the school's creation,  was founded in 1847 by William Harkness Sampson and Henry R. Colman.

The Case School of Applied Science was founded in 1880 by Leonard Case, Jr. Located in Cleveland, Ohio, the school has changed name's a few times throughout it's history and has now been the Case School of Engineering since 1992.

Fun Fact: The Case family home served as the "school" during the first four years of it's existence.

As you can see by the back, there are no card numbers. But since you can see which numbers are featured in this series, you can tell by counting down from the top which would be #101- that this card for the Case School of Applied Science is card #103.


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