"It is hard to imagine what the Company had
in mind when they issued T207 in 1912".
Lew Lipset, Encyclopedia of Baseball Cards, Vol.
3 (1986)".
Lipset has it right, as usual - the ATC's final tobacco set is an enigma. Perhaps the government-mandated breakup of the company in late 1911 put their focus on other areas, because after an enormously successful 3-year run when they issued the T206 and T205 sets, 1912's T207 set was a curious and unpopular follow-on due to its strange design and slew of unknown players. Popular brands of the day like Piedmont, Sweet Caporal, and Hassan sat out the T207 campaign; instead, the cards were issued only with a hodgepodge of brands including Recruit and Napoleon "Little Cigars", Cycle, Broad Leaf chewing tobacco, and an unknown brand that is now referred to "Anonymous".
Discussions of T207's usually focus on the set's quizzical artistic design and the obscurity of many of its players. White, black, and brown colors predominate, with small traces of red and blue on some cards. There are only 13 HOFer's in the set.
Recruit is by far the most common back, accounting for probably 90+% of all cards. The others have varying degrees of scarcity: Napoleon backs are scarce, while Broadleaf, Cycle and "Anonymous" are significantly harder. Red Cross is famously rare - there may be no more than 10 cards with this back in existence. Broadleaf and Cycle backs can be found in the T205 and T206 sets (both command a mild premium), while the others are all unique to T207.
