Check out my E-Bay Store for High Grade Vintage Baseball Coins & Pins! 

In 1962, Salada Tea and Junket Brand Desserts promoted their products by issuing a set of plastic backed baseball coins with paper inserts. The idea behind the set was simple, while at the same time elaborate – each of the then 18 Major League teams would have 10 players represented, one for each of the eight fielding positions plus two pitchers. This made for the 180 coin set that was originally produced.

However, midway through production, the National League expanded by adding two teams – the New York Mets and the Houston Colt .45’s. Salada then shifted gears and updated their entire set to reflect the resultant changes. Many new players were added, some were traded and some were dropped.

The 1962 end-product was a set of numbered coins that totaled 221 different players and made up a 180 player original set and a 200 player revised set. The varieties occurred when a player in the 200 set was changed in one way or another from the way he appeared in the 180 set.

Most varieties involve a player who had changed teams and/or positions (with Salada maintaining the same 10 positions per team pattern in the 200 piece set). Other varieties involve purely cosmetic changes from one set to another. Many L.A. Angels for example started with red uniform buttons but had these changed, for whatever reasons, to white buttons when the set was revised.

This is a very substantial, scarce, and attractive issue, loaded with rarities, stars and Hall of Famers, which has been overlooked by collectors in recent years. Few collectors realize how difficult sets are to assemble. Salada coins are also one of the more interesting choices of premiums ever devised to help generate sales of a product. I understand the issuing of these coins with desserts, but when you get right down to it, it’s just hard to imagine what Salada was thinking when they also issued these with tea. Even in the early 1960s, few youngsters were drinking tea, and even those that did have an occasional cup could not possibly be expected to drink enough to actually collect this set, issued one coin per box. But this is part of the charm of the set; and the unique designs, great players, and unmistakable early 1960s flavor of the set make this issue a classic of the era. These coins are similar to the Topps, Armour, Jello, Old London, Chips and Shirriff coins in the 1960’s but are much scarcer because they were issued in boxes of tea and pudding mix.

I will ship to anywhere in the US and Canada only. 

Shipping is $2.95 for the first item and $1 each additional item. Insurance is automatically added free of charge on orders over $100.

Free shipping for multiple orders adding up to over $100.