In the late 1800s and early 1900s cigarette insert cards, originally a cardboard backing for paper packs, became a collecting fad. To increase sales, series were created to induce the smoker to buy and continue to buy the product. There were series on a variety of subjects such as sports personalities, famous people, flags, animals, military subjects, countries, states, cars, ships, planes and more. The backs of the cards contained educational information on the many subjects. Special albums to hold the cards increased the pressure on the buyer to collect the entire series. Allen & Ginter, Duke, Goodwin, Kimball, Kinney, and P. Lorillard were major users of insert cards. In the early 1900s Turkish cigarettes became popular and so did their cards. After World War I tobacco insert or premium cards decreased in popularity. In 1939 production of the cards was discontinued because of the war and never really revived.
