This is an issue that we've not seen before produced by Hoshi Gangu. It is known, based on the players and teams, that the set was produced in 1959, which happens to be the rookie year for Sadaharu Oh. Some stamps use the same images as the 1959 JCM 24 Hoshi Gangu cards, including the Oh (please see photo). The stamps are divided into two uncut sheets of 18 cards each. The Hoshi Gangu star logo is found on each sheet. While most stamps have the player name printed on them, or are recognizable from the image, there are still several players that we have not yet been able to identify. Of those stamps we have identified, here is the list of Hall of Famers: Sadaharu Oh, Shigeo Nagashima (4 diff.), Masaichi Kaneda (2 diff.), Wally Yonamine, Katsuya Nomura, Yasumitsu Toyoda, Kazuhisa Inao, Futoshi Nakanishi (2 diff.), Tadashi Sugiura and Motoshi Fujita. This is a truly rare and important item for Sadaharu Oh rookie collectors.
Size: Each uncut sheet of 18 stamps is 3 1/8" x 12 1/16". Individual stamps are about 7/8" x 2".
Condition: The surfaces are dirty and there is occasional insect damage affecting one Nagashima stamp and the Toyoda stamp. One sheet has the red ink slightly out of register. The Oh card has a chipped lower border and some paper loss at the upper right border. The red ink is slightly out of register.
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