Swansea Town was founded in 1912, and its earliest known cards are the shaped Baines issues dating from approximately 1916 onwards, produced while the club was still competing in the Southern League.

After Swansea joined the Football League in 1920, the club and its players appeared in cigarette and trade-card sets from manufacturers including Godfrey Phillips, Gallaher and John Player.

The Baines, 'Pinnace' and the cigarette and trade cards issued during the 1920s form the foundation of an early Swansea Town collection.

1916–1922 J. Baines

J. Baines of Bradford was a pioneering figure in British football-card production, and its shaped issues rank among the earliest and most historically important football collectables ever produced.

At least four distinct J. Baines Swansea Town designs are currently known, but the true number is almost certainly higher.

Baines produced a vast and poorly documented range of shaped football cards, with no surviving complete checklist, so the total number of Swansea Town issues and variations remains unknown.

Differences in shape, illustration, wording, colour, back design and printer’s address mean further Swansea examples are likely still to exist.

1920–22 Godfrey Phillips 'Pinnace'

Godfrey Phillips’ ‘Pinnace’ Footballers series was one of the largest and most ambitious football-card issues produced in Britain, recording thousands of players from clubs across the country during the early 1920s.

At least 20 Swansea Town players are known in the numbered series, with several appearing in different printings, back styles and card sizes. The standard small cards were issued in cigarette packets, while larger formats could be obtained through a redemption scheme.

Swansea Town cards are known in small, medium and cabinet formats, alongside a scarce landscape team photograph. The cabinet team card is the outstanding Swansea issue from the series and one of the most desirable early cards connected with the club.

With 2,462 numbered subjects and 3,151 currently catalogued cards when recognised variations are included, completing even the Swansea Town run is a considerable challenge. Differences in size, back design, framing, printing and team details mean that the number of distinct Swansea examples is far greater than the basic player checklist suggests.

The First ‘Pinnace’ Issue: Oval Backs

The earliest Godfrey Phillips ‘Pinnace’ football cards were issued with a distinctive oval design on the reverse.

These cards are particularly important to Swansea collectors because they are the first known cards to depict individual Swansea Town players.

Four Swansea players are currently known with the oval back: Durnin, Ogley, Ivor Jones and W. V. Brown. Ivor Jones is particularly important; he became the first Swansea Town player to represent Wales.

1920 - 1st Series Small (KF) Sized Cards with 'Oval Backs'

2nd Series Small (KF) Sized Cards with 'Double Framed' Backs

The full list of the small 'KF' card numbers is:

1923 Pluck Famous Football Teams

Pluck was a weekly boys' story paper from the Amalgamated Press, the Harmsworth house that led the market in popular boys' periodicals from the 1890s onwards. Like several rivals, it lifted sales in the early 1920s by giving away collectable cards, and the 1922–23 Famous Football Teams series was one such promotion: twenty-seven cards, one club a week from October 1922 to April 1923.

Each card carried a team group photograph on the front and, on the back, an announcement of the club due to appear the following week, a neat marketing device that gave readers a reason to buy the next issue. It exists in two parallel runs, an English and Welsh version and a scarcer Scottish one.

Swansea Town appear as card number twenty, dated 10 March 1923, in both runs, trailed the previous week on the back of the Hull City card of 3 March.

It is one of the earliest nationally distributed cards to feature the club, which had only recently been elected to the Football League.

The front and date are common to both versions, so the only difference lies on the reverse: the English and Welsh issues name Middlesbrough as next week's subject, while the rarer Scottish issue names Aberdeen.

1922

• Godfrey Phillips B.D.V. League Colours Silks

1924

• Bucktrout Swansea Town

1925

• Barratt Cricket and Football

1926

• Ogden's Captains of Football

• Champion Famous Footer Internationals

• Gallaher Famous Footballers (Brown)

1927

• John Player & Sons Football Caricatures By Mac

1928

• John Player & Sons Footballers

• Gallaher Footballers Red Back

• Gallaher Footballers in Action

Wanted - Swansea Cards 1912-1929

1923

• Adventure Gallery Famous Club Colours

• J.C. Battock Cricket and Football Cards

1925

• F.M. Foods Welsh Footballers and Cricketers

• Lacey's Chewing Wax Footballers

• Triumph Photo Album

1925–28

• Barratt Cricketers, Footballers and Football Teams

1928

• Barratt Football Stars

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