Many collectors are familiar, of course, with the thousands of arcade cards produced by Chicago's Exhibit Supply Company (ESCO) from the early Twenties through the mid Sixties but their Canadian issues are a surprise to many.  A really nice surprise as it turns out.  In 1953 ESCO came out with a two 32 card series that featured a mix of Major League players in one, followed by a hybrid that that primarily showcased players from the Brooklyn Dodgers top farm team, the Montreal Royals, with a few MLB'ers tacked on at the end. Each of the Canadian versions of the 32 first series cards can be found with two different colored tints (green or reddish-purple), with the card number displayed in a small diamond near the lower right corner, above a Made in U.S.A. manufacturing notation; some also state "An Exhibit Card".  These cards are slightly smaller than the ESCO US issues, blank backed with a rougher cardboard than is seen in the states and are definitely an order of magnitude tougher.

Where have you gone, Dom DiMaggio?  Off to SGC for a sweet 5.5 grade from SGC on this purple (red) tint variety from the '53 Canadian Exhibits. With only four or five red tints graded across both PSA and SGC (PSA has an unidentified color in their pop report) this Dom D. looks real nice and tight, with only a couple minute corner touches.  The "Made in U.S.A." indicia is missing but unlike some other "tight crops" in this series, it appears to have never been captured in the composition of this specific card.