Chings cigarette cards

Cigarette cards were originally blank, used to stiffen flimsy packets and protect their contents. Then manufacturers realised that they could insert printed cards, encouraging smokers to buy their brand to complete sets of cards. These cards were produced for Chings, Jersey cigarette manufacturers, in the early 1960s. They are not particularly good photographs, but collectively they do help paint a picture of the island at that time. The first selection of pictures here is from the first and second sets, issued in 1960 and 1961, respectively. Below them is an almost complete third set, together with the descriptive backs. Finally there is a set of coloured etchings from about a century earlier. The cards are not particularly valuable, a set in an original album selling today for about £5