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.

Tommy Holmes was no longer a player or manager in organized baseball when this '53 Canadian Exhibit set was issued, so his inclusion in it is odd. The large picture on this specific subject makes centering difficult and it's not uncommon to find the "Made in U.S.A." indicia partially cropped or missing entirely due to the intentional undersizing of the Canadian Exhibits, as indeed it is here. This green tint variety is one of only four or five graded by PSA (they list one slab of indeterminate tint) and SGC combined. The SGC 3.5 grade is a real headscratcher, this card presents beautifully front and back!