Lion Coffee

Lion Coffee was a brand of coffee sold by the Woolson Spice Company of Toledo, OH. During the late 1800s the firm began running promotions where consumers could redeem lion heads for gifts such as paper dolls, trading cards, educational games, etc. Collectible cards were also inserted into packets of Lion’s Coffee. Several card games are known from the 1890s on this basis which would have encouraged the purchase of many bags of coffee to collect a full set.

Mother Goose

Lion Coffee Mother Goose card game. The set has 22 numbered pairs of cards illustrating popular nursery stories, plus one unnumbered Mother Goose card.

Above: Lion Coffee Mother Goose card game, late 19th century. 45 small size cards 100mm x50mm, printed on cheap card which has gone very yellow. The presence of a “Silver Locks” card (13) with the three bears points to the age of the cards. The bears’ adversary was named Silverlocks in the earliest appearance of the story but this was gradually favoured as Goldilocks, who we know now.

Unknown Card Game from Barbara Jones

Another example of the card games published in the 1890s by Lion Coffee.

Above: there are a total of 41 cards all with the same Lion Coffee picture. There are 2 Stop cards, 3 with the dollar value, 9 sets of 4 cards per set with the colors black, green, brown or orange and pink or faded red on each set. There is no name of the game or instructions of how to play. Not sure if it is a complete set. Courtesy Barbara Jones.