Cigarette History & Collectibles A National Cigar History Museum Gallery © Tony Hyman Uploaded January, 2010 Last modified April 15, 2010

Cigarette History & Collectibles

A National Cigar History Museum Gallery

Uploaded January, 2010

Last modified April 15, 2010

It’s hard to collect cigar ephemera for 60 years without picking up a cigarette item or two because most dealers lump them together as “tobacco,” even though their histories were intertwined far less than most folks believe. Cigarettes and cigars are made from entirely different tobaccos grown in very different parts of the US and the world, have different chemical qualities, were made by different types of labor, and on different types of machines. About all the two products have in common, other than their collectibility, is that New York City was, once upon a time, where most of them were made.

Here’s a few Exhibits for your enjoyment including two fine collections of playing cards given away by makers of cigars, cigarettes, and other tobacco products. Also of note is the story of Honradez, a Cuban cigarette responsible for the first tobacco give-aways, way back in the 1860s.

Cigarette companies have given away premiums by the score. After the Cuban package-wrapper phenomenon, came a few decades of insert cards, followed by the textile give-aways of the 1910-1916 period.

Flannels, felts, silks, and satins are frequently misunderstood premiums; learn what, why and when they were, here for the first time. You’ll find even more in the Premiums Gallery.

EXHIBITS