1964 Morinaga Top Star: Awesome Find!

A long time ago, almost two weeks ago, I made my last post. I've had some personal issues (read my other blog for a few more details if you're interested). But I'm back now, and there are hundreds of cards lying in front of me that I've picked up in the past couple weeks. I'm not sure if they're all blog-worthy... but yeah. This card is:

 Does this look like any other bromide I've featured on the blog? Well, technically, I guess it is. What you see is from the 1964 Morinaga Top Star set. Identified as JF2 in Engel's guide, it's the non-die-cut version of cards issued by Morinaga, a major candy company in Japan.

The die-cut cards are identified as JF 1 (1964 Morinaga Standups). JF1 is designated "R2" rarity (100-249 known copies) while JF2 is "R1" (250-1000 known copies). However, both sets have a few scarce cards, for whatever reason.

Fronts from both sets share identical photos and both have pure fronts without any text.

Yasumitsu Toyoda's card is one of two super-scarce cards in the JF2 set. I paid about $15, though it "books" for $250! I lucked out here - I just skimmed through the cards available at the store and grabbed the one that appealed most to me.

Backs have black text on the white card stock. The top line says Morinaga Top Star Card in Japanese, and the text below that hints that they were issued along with gum of the same name. The Morinaga logo is at the bottom along with company information.