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.

This purple (red) tint in a "7" of Sam Jethroe is the highest graded by SGC in either color. The lightest of touches on the lower right corner is evident on the front, which is superb otherwise.  There is an indeterminate dark spot on the lower back border, very possibly the result of recycled paper pulp (which sometimes revealed a hint of its prior life), that seems to play into the grade but this is one sharp "Jet".