Punch Cigarros rate among the rarest and most desirable of all Cuban cards, with few surviving examples known. Even advanced collections specializing in its era and players lack them, thanks to extreme rarity. The creator issued them on photographic paper glued to a cardboard backing measuring approximately 1 1/4" x 1 7/8". When surviving cards lack this backing, they're expected to grade AUTHENTIC, as does this example for Carlos Royers (sic "Roggers"), a multiskilled player who went on to join Cuba's initial class for its baseball Hall of Fame. His clean-cut photo stands out through some surface spots and pinholes, impressing anyone aware of these diamonds in the rough. As noted on its grading label, this card also holds provenance from the Richard Merkin collection, which contained many of the best-known baseball cards and ephemera from that region and era.
Issued in conjunction with a Cuban visit by the Detroit Tigers and Philadelphia Athletics, its set includes those American clubs and two Cuban rosters, Almendares and Havana. Their checklist's considered incomplete at just one or two examples for known subjects. (A card complete with backing for star Gervasio Gonzalez is also offered in this Love of the Game auction.) Punch Cigarros cards are considered white whales for virtually every collector of Caribbean or Negro Leagues material!