Lou Gehrig is found,
the card number will be
confirmed as 97 or 111.
| Information from David Hornish's website |
|
Hocus Focus was issued in two sizes, one measuring 7/8" x 1 7/16" (referred to as small) and one that was 1" x 1 9/16" (known as large), in 1955. While many old hobby guides have commingled the two checklists over the years, they share 96 subjects, with the small set adding an additional 30 that are not found in the large; numbers 1-96 are shown on the reverses of both sizes in a black circle and this numbering is the same in either size. What can differ is the subset numbering as Topps created eight subsets for the issue: Airplanes, Baseball Stars, Movie Stars, Sports Cars, Sports Thrills, Westerners, World Leaders, and World Wonders. Only the Movie Stars, Sports Cars and World Leaders have the same subset count in both sizes. Topps increased the Airplanes, Baseball Stars, Sports Thrills and World Wonders subsets by five and added ten to the World Leaders to wedge the additional 30 card "high numbers" into the small set. These "highs" were certainly issued at the same time as the "lows", given the likely 126 count array of the uncut sheet (18 x 7, matching Magic Photo of 1948-49 vintage). The subsets were not sequentially numbered, which was an early marketing trick employed by Topps before set checklists were issued in the packs. Small cards only came inserted in penny gum tabs while the large cards were lightly perforated (with dashes on the reverse as well) and sold in strips (I believe) of four plus three (or possibly two sometimes) cards in nickel packs, six cards per pack. Large cards should show signs of perforation/dashes on one or two of the long sides, which is a handy way to tell what size is being offered in auction and sale lots that have no other indication. |
01 Jesse James 02 Rotor Craft "Pinwheel" 03 Empire State Building 04 Roger Bannister 05 Ted Williams 06 AVRO Vulcan 07 Franklin Delano Roosevelt 08 Spook Jacobs 09 Eiffel Tower 10 Southern California 11 Bat Masterson 12 Lockheed XFV-1 13 Jackie Robinson 14 Buffalo Bill 15 Great Wall Of China 16 Woodrow Wilson 17 Dog Racing 18 AVRO 707B 19 Soccer 20 ARS 1301 21 Eldorado Brougham 22 Trident 23 Kirk Douglas 24 Mt. Everest 25 Antonio Rocca 26 Harvey Haddix 27 Skiing 28 Bing Crosby 29 Golden Gate Bridge 30 Hank Sauer 31 Ray Boone 32 Wright Brothers |
|
When a back image for Lou Gehrig is found, the card number will be confirmed as 97 or 111. |
|
97 98 Robert E. Lee 99 Admiral Richard E. Byrd 100 General George Marshall 101 Grand Canyon 102 Paracutin 103 Wally Moon 104 Vought Regulus 105 Boing "Bomarc" 106 Douglas Nike 107 Basketball |