COLLECTING cigarette cards was a hobby enjoyed by thousands of people long after they stopped being issued.

The cards were produced by tobacco manufacturers to stiffen cigarette packaging, but with their information and colourful illustrations, they quickly became a collector’s item.

Although no ‘stiffeners’ as they are called have been issued since the Second World War, there is still a lively trade in them, with rare ones fetching huge prices.

The first cards depicting actresses, baseball players, Indian chiefs and boxers were issued by the Allen and Ginter tobacco company in the United States.

WD & HO Wills produced the first UK cards, but with advertising. The first UK general interest cards were produced by John Player and Sons in 1893, featuring castles and abbeys.

Other manufacturers followed, with ships and sailors, cricketers and footballers.

Each set of cards typically consisted of 25 or 50 related subjects. Popular subjects include ‘beauties’ (film stars and models), nature, military heroes and uniforms and famous places.

One of Oxford’s leading cartophilists was Herman Munday, former deputy headmaster of Temple Cowley School and a former Assistant District Scout Commissioner.

He took up the hobby because “cards to me presented a great deal of information” and over a period of 45 years, he built up a collection of more than 50,000 cards, including about 850 complete sets.

They covered nature, historic figures, sport, acting, transport, flags, school crests and Gilbert and Sullivan costumes – “almost every subject you care to mention”, he once said.

Mr Munday, who used his collection extensively in his teaching, built up his collection on a reasonable budget, rarely paying more than £1 for a set.

Just as stamp collectors put a high price on stamps containing errors, cigarette collectors regard mistakes as valuable.

One card portraying Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli showed Big Ben in the distance, although Disraeli entered Parliament 30 years before the famous clock appeared.

Another of Uncle Tom, famous character in Uncle Tom’s Cabin, showed him with a black face and white feet, while one bearing a portrait of Henry IV had facts about Edward IV.

The world record $2.8m (about £1.4m) was paid in 2007 for a single card of U S baseball player Honus Wagner. He was a non-smoker and objected to his picture being included on a card. Threats of legal action prevented the card’s release, but a few slipped out, giving them a rarity value.

Are there any current cigarette card collectors in Oxfordshire? Write and let me know.