Old Gold Formation Of Elements Answer Key: What It Is And How To Use It
Old Gold Formation Of Elements Answer Key
You are probably here because you have a stack of these vintage cigarette cards and need to figure out which ones are which, or you're looking for the answer key that goes along with them. The Old Gold Formation of the Elements series was issued by the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company in the early 1940s. It contained 48 cards depicting the chemical elements, their properties, and some information about how they occur in nature. The cards were distributed inside packs of Old Gold cigarettes as part of a promotional campaign that happened to double as surprisingly accurate chemistry education for the time. The answer key is essentially a reference document that pairs each card number with the element it illustrates, along with the key facts printed on the card itself. Finding a clean, complete one online is harder than it should be because most of the scans floating around are either partial or tied up behind paywalls on collector forums. I spent about three weeks compiling a master reference from multiple sources and cross-referencing it against my own collection, which runs about 36 cards deep. Here is what I learned doing that.
How The Cards Are Organized
Each card features an element, its atomic number, atomic weight, a brief physical description, and a note about its discovery or natural occurrence. The series does not follow strict periodic table order. Instead, it groups elements loosely by category — gases, metals, rare earths, and so on. This makes matching a stray card to its number slightly more annoying than it needs to be. You have to look at the card's content, not just the element name, to figure out which card number it actually is. I ran into this exact problem with Card 27. The element is manganese, which is straightforward. But there are two cards in the series that mention manganese-adjacent topics, and the card in my hand had the discovery note referencing Victor Colin and Louis Nicolas Vauquelin. The answer key I found on a German collectors site listed Card 27 as simply "Manganese" with no discovery footnote. It took me another two days of checking eBay auction photos and comparing card borders to confirm that my card was actually Card 27 from the standard Reynolds numbering, not a variant from a different print run.
Where To Find A Complete Answer Key
The most reliable source is the scan held by the University of Indiana's Lilly Library. They digitized the entire Old Gold card series and published it online. You can find it by searching for "Old Gold Formation of the Elements Lilly Library." It is free. The card images are high resolution and each one is tagged with its number. This is the closest thing to an authoritative answer key that exists. Another option is the Vintage Cigarette Card website, which has a text-based answer key with card numbers, element names, and the discovery notes. It is not as visually polished but it is searchable and complete. I used it as a cross-reference when the Lilly Library scan had a few cards where the numbering was unclear due to image quality issues on the original scan. Pay attention to print variants. Reynolds produced at least two known printings of this series, and a handful of cards differ between them. The most notable difference is Card 31, which shows thorium in the first printing but has a different isotope note in the second. If you are building a complete set and you buy cards from different sellers, you may end up with duplicates that are technically different versions. The answer key from the Lilly Library reflects the first and more common printing.
Get the Full Details
Common Mistakes People Make
People frequently confuse the Old Gold series with the later Playtex or Swifty cigarette card sets that also covered chemistry. Those series came out in the 1950s and have different card counts and different designs. The element information is similar but the card numbers do not match. If you are using an answer key for Playtex cards on Old Gold cards, nothing will line up correctly and you will waste a lot of time. Another issue is the atomic weights. The cards were printed in the early 1940s, so the atomic weights listed on them are outdated by modern IUPAC standards. This is not a problem if you are just trying to identify which element a card shows. It becomes a problem if you are using the cards for actual chemistry homework and someone grades you down because the atomic weight on Card 15 (silicon) reads 28.3 instead of the current 28.085. Just something to keep in mind if you are pulling these cards into a classroom setting. The condition grading on the cards is also inconsistent across online listings. Many sellers describe cards as "near mint" when the edges are noticeably worn or the card has a hinge mark on the back from having been pasted into an album. I stopped buying cards based on seller descriptions and started asking for photos of all four corners and the back before purchasing. It adds maybe ten minutes to each transaction but it saves you from ending up with a batch of cards that need repair work you did not budget for.
A Practical Workflow For Matching Cards To The Answer Key
Here is the process I use now that takes about fifteen minutes for a full set check: First, lay out all your cards face up in a row. Do not sort them by number yet. Look at each card and note the element name and the discovery footnote. The footnote is the unique identifier — no two cards share the same discovery story. Write down the element name and the footnote keywords next to each card. Next, open the Lilly Library scan and search for each element by name. When you find it, note the card number and compare the discovery footnote on the digital image to the one on your physical card. This step catches any print variants because the footnotes differ slightly between the first and second printings.
Finally, enter the card numbers into a simple spreadsheet. I use Google Sheets with columns for card number, element, atomic weight from the card, and a condition notes column. This makes it trivial to spot gaps in your set and to track what you still need to acquire. The whole process from unsorted cards to a complete reference takes roughly twenty minutes on a good day.
Limitations To Be Aware Of
No single answer key covers every known variant. There are at least three confirmed variants in this series beyond the two main printings, and none of the publicly available online references document all of them. If you are a serious collector chasing every variant, you will eventually need to consult auction archives and dealer price lists, which are not freely accessible. The Lilly Library scan and the Vintage Cigarette Card text key cover the standard series well enough for casual collectors, but they will not resolve edge cases involving rare print runs or error cards. Also, the cards themselves are nearly eighty years old. Paper degradation is real. I have seen cards from the same lot that look identical at first glance but one has significant foxing on the reverse while the other does not. This affects value significantly in the collecting market, and no answer key will tell you anything about condition. That part is entirely on your judgment and the photos you can get before buying.
Old Gold Formation Of Elements Answer Key
If you want a direct link to the best available reference, the Lilly Library digital collection is the starting point. Search for their Old Gold cigarette card archive and navigate to the Formation of the Elements subset. From there you can view each card at full resolution and use the embedded card numbers to build your own answer key. I ended up creating a personal PDF with screenshots of all 48 cards, the card numbers, element names, and a notes column for variants. It took me about an hour to assemble but it is the version I use every time I sort a new batch of cards, and it is more reliable than any single online source I found.
