Lot # 235: 1975 Malaysia Menko Muhammad Ali "Small Numbers" Collection (21)

Starting Bid: $100.00

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Time Left: Auction closed


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Item was in Auction "2016 Ringside Auction",
which ran from 11/4/2016 4:00 AM to
11/18/2016 7:07 AM



When Ali decided to fight in Asia (Rudi Lubbers and Joe Bugner in Malaysia and Joe Frazier in Manila) it touched off a wave of card issues in the region. A gigantic series of menko-style cards were issued in Malaysia around the time of the Bugner bout. They are found in two or three formats; the third may be Japanese menko. We are pleased to offer a variety of cards from each known format. This is a potential whale of a set. It appears that the makers literally took every photo from Ali’s media day in Malaysia before the Bugner bout and made it into a color card each about the size of a large commemorative postage stamp with a playing card back. We might assume that there are 52 cards corresponding to the cards in a deck of playing cards but that would be wrong because there are duplicates of the red playing card backs. The card numbers are in four digits. All of the cards offered here depict the Greatest in his 1970s prime run as champion.

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