The most obvious result of Topps new monopoly is that they were able to increase the number of cards in the set. From a company low 206 cards in 1955, Topps increased the 1956 set to 340 cards. The set also featured two firsts, checklists (two unnumbered cards) and team picture cards.
The design resembled the format used the past two years, a large headshot and a smaller action shot. The difference in 1956 is that the action shot included all of the photo's background instead of just a cutout of the player.
The increased set size means more Cubs. There are 21 Cubs in the set. The team picture was taken at Wrigley Field. but the rest look like they were shot at the Polo Grounds or spring training.
This is one of three variations of the Cubs team card and it is the most common. In one variation, "1955" is included on the front of the card. In the third variation, the year is missing and the "Chicago Cubs" is left justified instead of centered.
You may get to this in a later post, but there are actually five versions of the team card and a number of duplicates of the player cards due to the gray back variety. I'm wondering how many of your cards have gray backs.
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