Scanlens is a brand of

trading card A trading card (or collectible card) is a small card, usually made out of paperboard or thick paper, which usually contains an image of a certain person, place or thing (fictional or real) and a short description of the picture, along with other ...

s first produced in the 1930s and given away with packets of

sweets Candy, also called sweets (British English) or lollies ( Australian English, New Zealand English), is a confection that features sugar as a principal ingredient. The category, called '' sugar confectionery'', encompasses any sweet confection, ...

and

chewing gum Chewing gum is a soft, cohesive substance designed to be chewed without being swallowed. Modern chewing gum is composed of gum base, sweeteners, softeners/ plasticizers, flavors, colors, and, typically, a hard or powdered polyol coating. Its ...

. The first sports-themed cards series were produced in limited quantities in 1963 featuring 18 players from the

Victorian Football League The Victorian Football League (VFL) is an Australian rules football league in Australia serving as one of the second-tier regional semi-professional competitions which sit underneath the fully professional Australian Football League (AFL). I ...

and players in the

New South Wales Rugby Football League The New South Wales Rugby League (NSWRL) is the governing body of rugby league in New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory and is a member of the Australian Rugby League Commission. It was formed in Sydney on 8 August 1907 and wa ...

and

Queensland Rugby League The Queensland Rugby Football League QRL Constitution, 2009: 3 (QRL QRL Constitution, 2009: 2) is the governing body for rugby league in Queensland. It is a member of the Australian Rugby League Commission (ARL Commission) and selects the memb ...

competitions which have since become highly sought after, with some cards commanding a price of up to $2000 each. Scanlens went on to produce further modern card sets (sport and non sport) between 1963 and 1991, many of which have since become collectors' items.

References

External links

* Chewing gum Trading cards Trading card companies Australian rules football culture Rugby football culture {{AFL-stub