A&BC Chewing Gum counter boxes
Most visitors to this website will know how highly collectors value the production of A&BC Chewing Gum. From the perspective of football card collectors their output from 1954 until 1974 was remarkable for its variety and quality. While it is still an on-going quest to try to build up a complete history of their work, little by little we are adding bits of the jigsaw puzzle. This task has been much much easier through the generous contributions below, mainly from website visitors Graham and Steve, who own most of these fine examples. Additional contributions to the gallery will be gratefully accepted – please email here.
A&BC Chewing Gum sold football cards in packets of chewing gum. The wrappers for the gum and cards are now very collectable, since most would have been instantly discarded by the buyer as soon as they were outside of the sweet shop. Rarer still are the counter boxes which the sellers of these packets would have used to store and display the packets. Amazingly a number have survived, and this website hopes, over time, to be able to display them all.
1964/65
1964/65 footballer
I’m sure that counter boxes were around from the early days of A&BC Chewing Gum, but I’m not aware of any images of any boxes before 1964/65. I do know that chewing gum in it’s early days was distributed through gum machines, so perhaps there was no need for counter boxes in the early days. For the 1964/65 set this attractive box held 72 packets, each for sale for 2d. The packets each contained two player cards (photos) and a piece of gum.
The English 1964/65 Footballers set was issued in three series, Series 1 (1 to 58), Series 2 (59 to 103) and Series 3 (104 to 149). The Scottish set of 81 green backed ‘Quiz’ cards was issued in two series: 1-44 and 45-81. I think that these cards were issued with the same packet and this one style of counter box.
English ‘Quiz’ set cards:
Gallery: Series 1, Series 2, Series 3
Checklists: Set checklist, Team checklist
Scottish ‘Quiz’ set cards:
Gallery: Set gallery
Checklists: Set checklist, Team checklist
1966/67 and 1967/68
1966/67 and 1967/68 footballer
The timing of these sets is not clear. According to the best sources I know there were no football cards produced for the 1965/66 season, though Tony Coakley (one of the company founders) once told me that they relied so much of the income from the football cards that they would never have skipped a season. However, it appears that the new style black and white double photograph English cards appeared in 1966/67 and the colour double Scottish cards in 1967/68 (which again is strange as it suggests a three year break for new Scottish card sets).
There is only one known wrapper style for these photographs, and one style of counter box. The packets cost 3d, and included six player photos (3 pairs) and a piece of gum. There were 48 packets to a box.
English set cards:
Gallery: Series 1 (1-110), Series 2 (111-220)
Checklists: Series 1 (1-110), Team checklist
Checklists: Series 2 (111-220), Team checklist
Scottish set cards:
Gallery: Set gallery
Checklists: Set checklist, Team checklist
1967/68
1967/68 Footballer
The packets cost 3d, and included a football card, a pin-up picture of an England Star and a piece of gum. There were 48 packets to a box.
I’m not aware that there was a Scottish set of cards for the 1967/68 season.
Number in set: 55
Gallery: Set gallery
Checklists sorted by card number: Set
Checklists sorted by team: Set
Special: Wrappers gallery
Special: A&BC counter boxes gallery
England’s Stars pin-ups
Number in set: 12
Gallery: Set gallery
Checklists sorted by card number: Set
Checklists sorted by team: Set
Special: Wrappers gallery
Special: A&BC counter boxes gallery
1968/69
1968/69 Footballer
The packets cost 3d, with 48 packets to a box.
The English yellow back cards were issued in two series, with the pennants given away with Series 1 and the Team Emblems with Series 2.
The Scottish yellow back cards were issued as a single series and included team pennants but not emblems. It is therefore possible that the Scottish cards were issued with the English Series 1 box, or that there is a counter box specifically for the Scottish cards.
English set cards
Number in set: 101
Gallery: Series 1, Series 2
Checklists sorted by card number: Series 1, Series 2, Set
Checklists sorted by team: Series 1, Series 2, Set
Scottish set cards
Number in set: 45
Gallery: Set gallery
Checklists sorted by card number: Set
Checklists sorted by team: Set
1969/70
1969/70 Footballer
The packets cost 3d, with 48 packets to a box.
The English green back cards were issued in three series, with black and white photographs given away with Series 2 and 3. The counter boxes for Series 2 and 3 have ‘New series’. Tony and Douglas Coakley, past Directors of A&BC, have confirmed that the new series were issued as the season progressed to entice buyers to continue buying cards throughout a season.
In 1969/70 the Scottish set of cards had blue backs and included the black and white photographs, though featuring different players from the English issue. The only player who appeared in both the English and Scottish photograph sets was Alan Gilzean, whose image appears on the counter box. Coincidence, or perhaps evidence that the same counter box was used for the English and Scottish sets.
English set
Number in set: 174
Gallery: Checklists
Checklists sorted by card number: Series 1, Series 2, Series 3, Set
Scottish set
Number in set: 77
Gallery: Series 1, Series 2
Checklists sorted by card number: Series 1, Series 2, Set
1969/70 World Cup Giant Posters
The packets cost 6d, with 48 packets to a box. In each packet you received a piece of gum, a World Cup poster and a gold-edged football card. The gold edged cards came in two versions, embossed and not-embossed. The cards are unnumbered .
Word Cup Giant Posters
Number in set: 16
Gallery: Set gallery
Checklists sorted by card number: Set
Gold edged cards
Number in set: 37
Gallery: Set gallery
Checklists sorted by card number: Set
Checklists sorted by team: Set
1970/71
1970/71 Footballer
The packets cost 6d, with 48 packets to a box.
The interesting thing about this counter box is that it mentions the terms ‘pin-up poster’ and ‘superstar’. The English series is believed to have 14 pin-ups, while the Scottish series had 28 pin-ups, perhaps with the second series of pin-ups referred to as ‘Superstars’. I therefore think that this counter box (kindly sent in by Steve) is from the Scottish set.
English set cards:
Number in set: 255
Gallery: Arsenal, Blackpool, Burnley, Chelsea, Coventry City, Crystal Palace, Derby County, Everton, Ipswich Town, Leeds United, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United, Newcastle United, Nottingham Forest, Southampton, Stoke City, Tottenham Hotspur, West Bromwich Albion, West Ham United, Wolverhampton Wanderers, Checklists
Checklists sorted by card number: Series 1, Series 2, Series 3, Set
Checklists sorted by team: Series 1, Series 2, Series 3, Set
Scottish set cards:
Number in set: 171
Number in set: 171 (in Series 1 and Series 2)
Gallery: Series 1, Series 2
Checklists sorted by card number: Series 1, Series 2, Set
Checklists sorted by team: Series 1, Series 2, Set
1971/72
1971/72 Footballer
The packets cost 2p, with 60 packets to a box.
The English purple back cards were issued in three series, with club crests given away with Series 2 and superstar stamps given away with Series 3. The displayed box is therefore for Series 2.
The Scottish purple back cards were only issued in two series and included the club crest giveaway.
English set cards
Number in set: 290
Gallery: Arsenal, Cardiff City, Chelsea, Coventry City, Crystal Palace, Derby County, Everton, Huddersfield Town, Ipswich Town, Leeds United, Leicester City, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United, Newcastle United, Nottingham Forest, Sheffield United, Southampton, Stoke City, Tottenham Hotspur, West Bromwich Albion, West Ham United, Wolverhampton Wanderers, Checklists
Checklists sorted by card number: Series 1, Series 2, Series 3, Set
Checklists sorted by team: Series 1, Series 2, Series 3, Set
Scottish set cards
Number in set: 144
Gallery: Series 1, Series 2
Checklists sorted by card number: Series 1, Series 2, Set
Checklists sorted by team: Series 1, Series 2, Set
1971/72
1973/74 Giant Team posters
The packets cost 4p, with 36 packets to a box. The posters have been dated to mid 1972 for production, with the likelihood that they were distributed early in 1973.
Number in set: 16
Gallery: Set gallery
Checklists sorted by card number: Set
Special: A&BC counter boxes gallery