Lot # 381: Circa 1940s Pirate Cigarettes Unopened Tobacco Pack

Presented is an original unopened pack of Pirate Cigarettes produced by W. D. & H. O. Wills. The reverse of all Pirate Cigarette cards (baseball and nonsport issues) features the images of a Pirate Cigarettes pack (or box) in some fashion. The front of the pack features a single pirate in full-length pose onboard a ship while the back has two scenes framing an advertisement for Pirate Cigarettes. Pirate Cigarettes are among the most legendary rarities in all of card collecting. They are so rare that little is known with certainty about their distribution, but they are believed to have been issued to American servicemen in the South Seas. The offered pack features an undated tax stamp from the Republic of the Philippines. (This is a 20 ct. pack, not a 10 ct. pack. The T215 related (opened) packs we've sold to this point have all been 10 ct. We believe this pack to be from the 1940s based on the styling/verbiage of the tax stamp ("Republic of the Philippines" seems to begin to appear on tax stamps in either 1944 or 1946). Despite not being a T215-era item, Pirate packs are still exceedingly rare, with this being the first fully intact pack we've ever handled. This example retains all of its original colors and crisp imagery. It has been beautifully preserved over the years, presenting as extremely clean with light handling and a couple small paper tears of the outer shell on the sides. It is a very desirable pack that is of the same style as that pictured on the reverse of the baseball cards. This is a very attractive pack of Pirate Cigarettes, among the most visually appealing of the era, which would make an outstanding addition to any tobacco-packaging collection.