Uncut Sheets of 1955 Bowman Football Cards
I have not seen a full sheet of 1955 Bowman football cards, but I believe that the sheets were configured as shown below. If you hold your cursor above any of the card images, your browser should show you the name of the player and the number of the card. Clicking on a card will bring up a full-size image. (A real uncut sheet would not have lines between the cards--that's an effect of scanning them individually.)
The 1953, 1954, and 1955 Bowman football sets contain 96, 128, and 160 cards, respectively. Because all of those numbers are divisible by 32, I presume that the 1953-1955 sets were printed on 32-card sheets. I also presume that the cards were arranged in numerical order on the sheets, because pictures I have seen of earlier Bowman sheets show that the cards were ordered by number. (See my 1950 Bowman and 1952 Bowman Large virtual sheets.)
Given all that, I believe that the first 1955 Bowman sheet held cards numbered 1 through 32, and it looked like this.
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
This table shows how the cards on the first sheet were arranged by number:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 |
9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 |
17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 |
25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 |
The second sheet held cards numbered 33 through 64:
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
And it was numbered like this:
33 | 34 | 35 | 36 | 37 | 38 | 39 | 40 |
41 | 42 | 43 | 44 | 45 | 46 | 47 | 48 |
49 | 50 | 51 | 52 | 53 | 54 | 55 | 56 |
57 | 58 | 59 | 60 | 61 | 62 | 63 | 64 |
The third sheet held cards numbered 65 through 96:
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
And it was numbered like this:
65 | 66 | 67 | 68 | 69 | 70 | 71 | 72 |
73 | 74 | 75 | 76 | 77 | 78 | 79 | 80 |
81 | 82 | 83 | 84 | 85 | 86 | 87 | 88 |
89 | 90 | 91 | 92 | 93 | 94 | 95 | 96 |
The fourth sheet held cards numbered 97 through 128:
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
And it was numbered like this:
97 | 98 | 99 | 100 | 101 | 102 | 103 | 104 |
105 | 106 | 107 | 108 | 109 | 110 | 111 | 112 |
113 | 114 | 115 | 116 | 117 | 118 | 119 | 120 |
121 | 122 | 123 | 124 | 125 | 126 | 127 | 128 |
Finally, the fifth sheet held cards numbered 129 through 160:
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
And it was numbered like this:
129 | 130 | 131 | 132 | 133 | 134 | 135 | 136 |
137 | 138 | 139 | 140 | 141 | 142 | 143 | 144 |
145 | 146 | 147 | 148 | 149 | 150 | 151 | 152 |
153 | 154 | 155 | 156 | 157 | 158 | 159 | 160 |
According to my Beckett football card price guide, "cards 65-160 are slightly more difficult to obtain." Those would be the cards on the last three sheets. Judging by PSA's population report, it's actually cards 129-160--the cards on the last sheet--that are most difficult. At the time of this writing, the cards with 20 or fewer examples graded PSA 8 or higher were numbers 89, 98, 99, 100, 102, 129, 135, 137, 138, 142, 143, 145, 148, 149, 151, 152, 159, and 160. Of these, card 89 is on a corner of the third sheet, the next four cards are in the top row of the fourth sheet, and the remaining thirteen are on the last sheet.
For more virtual uncut sheets, see the Gallery's master uncut sheet page.