A&BC CHEWING GUM LTD.

A&BC Chewing Gum Ltd. formed in 1949, are one of the best remembered card producers from the last century. Their sets included amongst many other things pop stars, film stars, TV stars and cricketers. The company produced their first set of sports cards in 1954 - ‘All Sport’.  The 120 card set of sporting personalities included 36 footballers. Their first all-football card set followed in 1958 and the company would issue at least one set of football cards each year for the next 16 years before being taken over by American company Topps Chewing Gum in 1975.

1958/59 FAMOUS FOOTBALLERS

This set was A&BC's first to be solely dedicated to football. It was issued in two series - cards 1 to 46 and cards 47-92.

Series one had two versions and is commonly referred to as 'Planet', due to an offer printed at the top of some of the cards. In series one, the 'Planet' cards have black and red backs, while the non-Planet cards have blue and red backs. For reasons unknown there are two different sizes for the non-Planet cards, with some cards slightly larger and with a larger printed image than other cards in the set. All of the cards in series two have, or originally had, the Planet offer at the top and black and red backs.

You could obtain a 32 page 'Topstars Album of Famous Footballers' by sending off one wrapper and  a 1/- postal order. The album contained a space for each card in the set as well as statistics from the 1957/58 season.

Number of cards in set: 92
Number of Albion cards in set: 6

The card backs are enlargeable by clicking on them

'PLANET'

Card Dimensions: H 93mm x W 63mm
 

6 - STEWART WILLIAMS	7 - BOBBY ROBSON	9 - RAY BARLOW

25 - DEREK KEVAN	28 - DON HOWE	91 - MAURICE SETTERS

'NON-PLANET'

Card Dimensions: H 88mm x W 63mm

	6 - STEWART WILLIAMS