The first cards I ever bought and collected as a kid were the 1959 CFL cards in the summer before second grade and I have very pleasant and distinct memories of where I bought and then stood to admire some of these cards. I was just west of Hartry's Grocery store on Elmwood Avenue in London while I was opening a couple of packs of cards that contained By Bailey and Sonny Homer. They were the first British Columbia Lions I'd managed to get so that memory has stayed with me to this very day. Similarly I remember being on Askin Street just east of Wharncliffe Road opening a pack of the 1960 CFL cards that I'd just bought at a green grocer's on Wharncliffe Road and getting a Russ Jackson card.
Conversely I remember discovering the new 1962 CFL cards at the downtown Metropolitan(Met) store on Dundas Street and excitedly buying three or four packs. I was then bitterly disappointed to discover that the packs contained panels of two black-and-white half size cards. Bummer.
But I was eating box after box of Post Sugar Crisp as well that summer trying to complete a set of the 1962 Post Cereal CFL cards. This was an effort doomed to failure since you couldn't get all the cards in the set unless you were willing to sample Post's entire line of cereals. Undaunted I was back to eating Sugar Crisp and Crispy Critters the following summer to get the 1963 edition of Post CFL cards.
I remember the excitement I felt in August of 1963 when I saw that the Krun-Chee Potato Chips at the News Depot on Dundas Street in downtown London (a regular haunt of mine on Saturdays) had CFL coins free inside! I wondered how long they'd been out since Krun-Chee Potato Chips weren't sold in too many London area stores. A few days later I was happy to discover (and a bit confused as well) that the Humpty Dumpty Potato Chips (also uncommon at the time) at Ken's Variety just a few blocks away from my house on Wharncliffe Road also contained these coins. I also remember pulling another one of these coins out of a bag of chips (I can't remember which brand) a week or so later on a family train trip to Toronto to visit relatives and take in the Canadian National Exhibition.
The real problem I had at the time though was that I was also buying DC superhero comics and my buddy Tony and I had earlier that summer embarked on a mission of collecting all bubble gum cards. (Quantity not condition was our focus.) I couldn't finance all those collecting activities at the same time so I didn't get too far with the 160 coin CFL set.
As a result, these 1963 CFL coins carry a big dollop of nostalgia for me. This set is tough and rather expensive to complete these days but I'd managed the feat in about the year 2000. But because I like these coins so much, about ten years ago I decided to break my set into two - English only backs and bilingual backs - just so I could continue collecting them. A very noble Canadian collecting venture if I do say so myself!
I've launched a more determined bid to complete both sets in the past few months. Here are scans of a couple of lots I've scored from a fellow near Edmonton:
These are the ones I still need:
1963 CFL Coins English backs
11 12 13 20 32 33 39 51 53 71 73 76 77 78 79 80 94 96 97 98 100 119 131 133
1963 CFL Coins Bilingual backs
2 3 14 15 16 17 18 19 28 35 54 55 59 60 64 70 72 82 87 93 101 102 106 107 108 109 112 113 114 115 116 119 120 124 128 130 132 135 136 137 138 140 141 143 146 147 151 152 153 155 156 160
