Monty Gum
Monty Gum is a company from the city of Leiden in Holland. Created after World War II the name Monty is a reference to Field Marshal Bernard Law Montgomery. Rik Bruning runs an excellent Monty Gum site, and you can read the company history at Rik’s Monty Gum site (I used Google to translate it). Monty Gum were an amazingly resilient producers of football cards, with their first set of English cards produced in 1961, and their last around 1990. Quality of cards and printing is a bit of an issue with the early Monty cards. You can read an article about the association between Monty Gum and Hannahs of Johnstone here.
1961
Footballers
In 1961, Monty Gum,released a distinctive set of football trading cards known as the “Footballers” series. This collection uniquely combined the traditional design of playing cards with images of prominent football players from that era.
The series comprises 56 cards, mirroring a standard deck of playing cards, including the four suits—hearts, diamonds, clubs, and spades—each containing cards from Ace through King, along with four Joker cards. Each card features a footballer overlaid onto the playing card format, creating a dual-purpose collectible that appeals to both football enthusiasts and card game aficionados. The set showcases a range of notable footballers from the early 1960s, including:
Stanley Matthews, Bobby Charlton, Jimmy Greaves, John Charles and Albert Quixall.
Each player is assigned to a specific card within the deck. For instance, Stanley Matthews is featured on the 2 of Diamonds, while Bobby Charlton appears on the 4 of Diamonds. The inclusion of such prominent figures highlights the set’s appeal to fans of the sport during that period.
Number in set: 56
Gallery: N/A
Checklists: N/A
1968
Football Teams
In 1968, Monty Gum, released the “Football Teams” series. The series comprises 60 cards, each featuring a football team from around the world. One of the standout features of this series is the inclusion of prominent teams such as Santos FC, which boasted the legendary Pelé during that period. An uncut factory press sheet of the complete 60-card set, featuring teams like Santos FC, has been documented. Another recurring aspect of this series, as well as other Monty Gum series, is the numerous spelling errors. Several of the teams have had their names misspelled on the cards. I have attempted to correct this in the gallery, but please feel free to email me if you find any additional errors.
Number in set: 60
Gallery: Set gallery
Checklists: N/A
1969/70
International Football Teams
A set of team pictures produced for the international market which includes 12 English teams. I’m showing a scan of the packet which they came in plus one card. The back of the packet is written in Dutch, so its all foreign to me. However, I suspect that it says that the backs of all of the cards make up a 4-colour poster of Benfica. The Benfica picture is the same image as card number 57 from the set. There are no markings on the cards to indicate that they are produced by Monty Gum or are part of this set.
I’m not sure how many countries these cards were sold in, but they don’t seem overly common, so perhaps just a handful. There was nothing else from Monty Gum in England for another 6 years, so let’s assume that they didn’t sell too well in England in 1969 and 1970. A pity really, because they showed some promise.
Number in set: 72
Gallery: Set gallery, Benfica team picture gallery
Checklists: Set checklist, Team checklist
1975/76
Football Now
Unnumbered, poor quality cards on a cheap card with plain grey backs. The quality control on the player and team names is also very suspect, with one card mentioning both the player and team name as ‘Everton’ (actually Terry Darracott). The QPR and Glasgow Rangers cards were printed with the word ‘Football’ in either red or yellow writing. The set is mainly of individual players, but also includes team cards. Only 12 teams are included, 11 from England plus Rangers from Scotland. While it might be reasonable to expect 16 cards from each team (15 players plus a team photo), the actual numbers vary with 20 for Rangers, 20 for Leicester City, 17 for QPR, 16 for Coventry, Derby, Everton, Manchester United and Newcastle, 15 for Ipswich, Leeds and Norwich, and only 13 for Middlesbrough. The cards were released in the UK through Hannah’s of Johnstone. Each packet cost 3p and contained 7 cards.
Apparently there is no Manchester United team card. If you ever find one please let me know. I’m grateful to Øivind for his assistance with completing my checklists for this set.
Number in set: 193
Gallery: N/A
Checklists: Set checklist, Team checklist
1977/78
World Cup football
Unnumbered, poor quality cards on a cheap card with plain grey backs. The wrapper says ‘Hannah’s present’. The set is mainly of individual players, but also includes some team cards. The wrapper (shown) has some English text on the back which states:
‘Join the Monty Club and order an album by sending 10 empty packets plus 50p in stamps. Address: Monty Club – POB 173 – Leiden, Holland’.
Number in set: 224
Gallery: N/A
Checklists: N/A