Through the history of collecting mini license plates some items have proven to be simply hard to find. Because those items don't have a great deal of contemporary documentation because at the time they were created, most were an afterthought - an add-on that did not warrant a great deal of attention. This has hurt modern research a great deal.
Because we live in the age of the internet and instant answers, researching subjects such as the 1953 and 1954 Cracker Jack cards becomes a nightmare with very little information to use, and the fact that these cards were made 73 years ago just adds to the problem; it’s likely that not one single person who worked at Cracker Jack in 1953 is still alive.
So the information we would seek is dead, gone to history. Because we cannot learn how many were made and how many of those were released, or how long they were distributed, or any other tantalizing question we may have. The internet would have required that someone do the research and find/publish the information they gathered over the past 30 some-odd years, and then it would have to still be on the internet to do research on the subject today, Google can only return information that is currently on the internet.
I can tell you there is painfully little information about these cards anywhere on the internet. Even finding an image of these cards is nearly impossible outside of Jim Moini’s website at (www.moini.net) and this website, and those images came only through collaboration and assistance from the great folks in the Cracker Jack Collectors Association (CJCA) located at (www.crackerjackcollectors.com) . A lot of time and energy was put into the project of producing high quality images of these cards to make them available online. I’m not looking for praise, I love doing it and am happy to serve you collectors.
All of this leads me to what is known regarding the Cracker Jack cards. Of course if any of this is wrong, feel free to correct me using the contribute form. They are rare - incredibly rare.
For most of the cards in the two sets (1953-54) there are fewer than a half dozen of each card known to have survived, and many of those in the 1954 set are actually unique with only one known to exist. There are at least a dozen of the 48 states in the 1954 set that are completely unknown to exist today and nobody I have contacted has any idea where to look to find images of them.
We cannot go on continually losing history - it’s a shame we don’t know more. Do some research some time on something for which you have interest. Make sure all you find is documented where others can find it when you are gone. If you know something, say something. I would be happy to publish anything on this website I learn from collectors. Please don’t let history swallow our neat hobby!