Most other tobacco companies followed suit. Some very early cigarette cards were printed on silk which was then attached to a paper backing. Each set of cards typically consisted of 25 or 50 related subjects, for example famous football players, Boy Scouts or British butterflies. They were discontinued in order to save paper during World War II, and never fully reintroduced thereafter.
The most famous single cigarette card came from American Tobacco Company's Sweet Caporal cigarettes. Part of their "T206" set, it featured baseball player Honus Wagner, a Pittsburgh Pirates shortstop (now a member of the Baseball Hall of Fame). Wagner objected to the publication of the card, either because he did not want to promote cigarette smoking by children or because he was not being paid, or both. At any rate, the card was withdrawn and at most a few dozen remain in existence. Its value exceeds one million dollars. Recently, a different Wagner cigar card, made when he was a minor-leaguer with the Louisville, Kentucky Colonels has surfaced. Only one of these is known to exist.
Perhaps the most famous, and sought-after, set of cards is the untitled series of cards issued by Taddy and known by collectors as "Clowns and Circus Artistes". While not the rarest cards in existence (there are a number of series in which only one known example remains), they are still very rare and command high prices whenever they come up for auction.
DORAL, an RJ Reynolds American cigarette brand, is in its 6th year of printing cigarette cards. Starting in the year 2000, they are considered to be the first cigarette cards from a major manufacturer since the 1940's. That same year (2000), a Honus Wagner 1910 Sweet Caporal cigarette card sold for over a million dollars at auction.
-source: Wikipedia
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