A&BC Chewing Gum (Scottish)

A&BC Chewing Gum (Scottish)

Though A&BC Chewing Gum began producing football card sets in England for the 1958/59 season it wasn’t until 1962 that they decided to produce sets specific to Scotland. They then continued on producing Scottish sets throughout the history of the company. As a general rule the Scottish cards are rarer, and therefore more valuable than their English equivalents. If you can help with additional information or images please contact me using the email link at the top of the page.

For collectors of cards, stickers and other items from the 1950s, 60s and 70s there are few producers that come close to the quality, variety and longevity of A&BC Chewing Gum. In the aftermath of World War II four young men, recently demobbed from their War service, Mr Simon Anysz, Mr Rudy Braun, Mr Douglas Coakley and Mr Tony Coakley decided to form a company with the aim of producing and selling chewing gum. Using the letters of their names the owners called the company A&BC Chewing Gum. In its 25-year history (the company folded in 1974) it produced some of the best bubble gum and collectors cards ever seen in the U.K. VintageFootball.cards is proud to be playing a part in recording the history of the company and showing much of the output of A&BC Chewing Gum’s football cards production. We recommend you take the time to read the full and facinating story about A&BC Chewing gum, written by the founder of this website, Nigel Mercer.

1962/63

Footballers

A set of 44 black and white photograph cards with facsimile autographs and plain backs. I’ve dated this set as 1962/63 though some catalogues list it as 1961/62. The set includes cards showing the 1961/62 League Champions and Cup Winners, so I’ve assumed that A&BC would have produced this set around June/July 1962 ready for the 1962/63 season.

VintageFootball.cards is pleased to be able to display a full set of these cards. They are incredibly rare as a set, so the displayed images have our old website address overwriting the photographs. We are indebted to Adrian for allowing us to display this set on our website.

Number in set: 44
Gallery: Set
Checklist sorted by card number: Checklist
Checklist sorted by team: Checklist

1963/64

Footballers (Make-a-Photo, green backs)

A set of 81 green backed ‘Make-a-Photo’ cards, issued as two series. A superbly democratic sets of cards from A&BC with four players each from the top 19 teams, though only 3 from Clyde, making a total of 79 player cards and two checklists. The cards show very relaxed photos of players within a coloured oval frame, making the overall effect very appealing.

Number in set: 81 (41 in Series 1, 40 in Series 2)
Gallery: Series 1, Series 2, Set
Checklists sorted by card number: Series 1, Series 2, Set
Checklists sorted by team: Series 1, Series 2, Set

1964/65

Footballers (Quiz, green backs)

An interesting set of 81 green backed ‘Quiz’ cards, issued in two series, 1-44 and 45-81. One of the things to note about this set is the mix of teams, with four players from East Stirlingshire, two from Stranraer, but only three from Aberdeen. Nice to see the lesser-known club players featured for a change!

Number in set: 81 (44 in Series 1, 37 in Series 2)
Gallery: Series 1, Series 2, Set
Checklists sorted by card number: Series 1, Series 2, Set
Checklists sorted by team: Series 1, Series 2, Set
Special: A&BC counter boxes gallery.

1967/68

Footballers

A set of 66 coloured photograph cards issued in pairs, but most often seen as singles. There are 42 different individual footballers to collect, although they were issued as a number of different ‘pairs’ – each footballer may therefore appear on more than one paired card. There are 43 known paired player card combinations, plus 12 paired cards (24 individual cards) which each depict part of a photograph of the Celtic team group – these cards are very rare.

Number in set: 55 paired cards (43 player pairs and 12 Celtic team group), or 66 individual cards
Gallery: Set gallery – individual cards
Gallery: Set gallery – pairs
Checklists sorted by card number: Set
Checklists sorted by team: Set

1968/69

Footballers – Yellow backs

Similar to the English yellow backs of the same year. Douglas Coakley of A&BC Gum has advised that in 1968 they had terrible trouble in the factory mixing up the English and Scottish cards so after that year they made the two sets different colours each year.


Number in set: 45

Gallery: Set
Gallery: Backsides

Checklists sorted by card number: Set

Checklists sorted by team: Set


Special note: There are a four different versions of 43 of the cards, where the photograph and text are the same but the Football Quiz questions differ.
This special gallery  shows the backs of the 172 cards, though still has some gaps
.

Pennants

Team pennants folded in the yellow back card packets, hence the folds whenever you see these attractive pennants. The pennants have instructions to ‘Cut out Pennant along black line’ but thankfully not too many boys seem to have done this.

Number in set: 13 known
Gallery: Set
Checklist sorted by team: Set

1969/70

Footballers – Blue backs

A set of 75 cards plus two checklists, issued as two series. Whereas the previous Scottish sets had only players from Scottish clubs, this set included a number of Scottish players from English clubs. The checklists are unnumbered, so I have included them in the series they refer to.

Number in set: 77 (42 in Series 1, 35 in Series 2)
Gallery: Series 1, Series 2, Set
Checklists sorted by card number: Series 1, Series 2, Set
Checklists sorted by team: Series 1, Series 2, Set
Special: A&BC counter boxes gallery

Crinkle-cut photographs

Attractive black and white photograph cards with a crinkle-cut edge. These cards were issued with the Blue back set.

Number in set: 15
Gallery: Set
Checklists sorted by card number: Set
Checklists sorted by team: Set

1970/71

Footballer – Green backs

The first large Scottish A&BC set, issued as two series, with checklist cards 85 and 170. The card style is similar to the 1970/71 English orange backs.

Number in set: 171
Number in set: 171 (in Series 1 and Series 2)
Gallery: Series 1Series 2, Set
Checklists sorted by card number: Series 1, Series 2, Set
Checklists sorted by team: Series 1, Series 2, Set
Special: A&BC counter boxes gallery

Pin-ups

An attractive set of ‘pin-up’ posters issued with the Green Backs. Since these pin-ups were squeezed into the bubble gum packets they always have the creases. While the equivalent English set had 14 pin-ups the Scottish, for some reason, has 28. I’m not sure, but suspect that the first 14 pin-ups where issued with Series 1, and the second 14 (relabelled as ‘Superstar posters’) were issued with Series 2.

Number in set: 28
Gallery: Set
Checklists sorted by card number: Set
Checklists sorted by team: Set

1971/72

Footballers – Purple backs

A&BC reversed their previous decision and went with the same colour backing for the English and Scottish sets of this year. This set was issued as two series, 1 to 73 and 74 to 144.

Number in set: 144
Gallery: Series 1, Series 2, Set
Checklists sorted by card number: Series 1, Series 2, Set
Checklists sorted by team: Series 1, Series 2, Set

Football club crests

Similar to the English set, issued with Series 2 of the Purple backs, but only 16 of them. This raises questions about whether or not these were intended to be stuck into an album. The album was designed for the 23 English Club Crests and 23 Superstars, so perhaps the Scottish crests were stand-alone.

I’m aware of four different styles of wrappers for A&BC’s 1971/72 Series 2 footballers, one referring to the album, and the other three to Chewing Gum. It is therefore reasonable to assume that only the bubble gum wrappers were used for the Scottish Series 2 cards.

Number in set: 16
Gallery: Set
Checklists: Set
Special: A&BC counter boxes gallery

1973/74

Footballers – Red backs

This set was issued as two series, 1 to 90 and 91 to 178. By this time A&BC seem to have run out of steam, with little to excite young boys in the form of giveaways or new ideas.

Number in set: 178
Gallery: Series 1, Series 2, Set
Checklists sorted by card number: Series 1, Series 2, Set
Checklists sorted by team: Series 1, Series 2, Set

 

1974/75

Footballers – Green backs

The last ever A&BC Footballers production before the takeover by Topps. A small set, only 132 cards, and no special giveaways. Checklist card is number 69.

Number in set: 132
Gallery: Set 
Checklists sorted by card number: Set
Checklists sorted by team: Set