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.

SGC can call it purple but this is the red tint variety of the 1953 Canadian Exhibit of Vic Raschi and it's in Near Mint form with a grade of 7. A clean and inviting obverse, with only a modicum of wear to the lower left corner, is the siren call of this high grade example of this high octane Yankee pitcher who went 92-40 across their unprecedented five consecutive championship seasons from 1949-53.