1949 Eureka Stamps

Here's an interesting little item.

It's the Phillies Willie "Puddin' Head" Jones from the 1949 Eureka Stamps set.

The 201-stamp collection only features National League players. Apparently there wasn't enough interest to release the American League stamps, although the available album mentions the American League stamps. The stamps were issued in team name order, and in player name order within each team set. The Phillies were stamps 127-151. The Jones stamp is 139.

The player's name and stamp number is in a yellow strip across the bottom. Below that, in very tiny print it says "1949 Eureka Sportstamps" followed by what looks like a number that might be 885600M. It's real hard to read.

I'm amazed at the good condition of this 65-year-old piece of paper. The color is excellent. The corners and perforations are sharp, like it was detached just yesterday (maybe the seller had this as part of a larger sheet). The adhesive appears intact but I'm not going to test it. The gray area at the top of the stamp is just a shadow from the scan.

I was looking for 1980s Phillies Topps stamps on eBay and this showed up in the list.

I got all the information on this set from Beckett.com.