A Century in Cardboard

Swansea Town was founded in 1912, and within a few years the club began to appear on small pieces of card. Each era since left its mark, printed for a cigarette packet, tucked inside a sweet wrapper, or issued by the great trading card firms of the day.

Together these cards form a visual record of the club stretching across more than a century. This is the story of that record, told decade by decade.

The Early Issues

The first Swansea Town cards run from the Baines trade cards of the club's founding years to the Godfrey Phillips Pinnace issues of the early 1920s.

Baines made the shaped, brightly coloured novelty cards collected by schoolboys, with four Swansea Town designs confirmed, while Pinnace offered small, real photographs of individual players.

Pinnace was produced in several sizes from the standard card up to the larger rare cabinet format.

The Allchurch Years

Card production grew quickly after the Second World War, and Swansea featured throughout.

Confectionery and cigarette companies issued sets picturing the players of the day, among them Ivor Allchurch, whose talent carried far beyond the Vetch Field.

Makers such as Barratt and A&BC recorded a generation of Welsh footballers at the height of their careers.

These sets preserve the look of the postwar club and the men who defined it.

Becoming a City

For most of these two decades, Swansea played in the lower divisions, and the club changed its name from to Swansea City in 1970. Swansea also reached the FA Cup Semi Final in 1964.

The major bubblegum and sticker makers of the era, A&BC and then Topps, along with FKS and the arrival of Panini at the end of the 1970s, built their sets largely around the top flight.

The decade closed with John Toshack's arrival in 1978 and the climb that would soon follow.

The Rise and Fall

Toshack's side reached the First Division between 1981 and 1983, a brief top-flight spell that brought Swansea players into the major sticker and card sets of the early 1980s.

Relegation then returned the club to lower-tier football, and national coverage thinned again.

The Premier League's launch in 1992, and the sticker albums that grew up around it, centred firmly on the top division. Swansea sat outside the decade's flagship products for much of this time.

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