The Ultimate Ginter Mini Set Bracket: Seeding Vote #7 (2013)

Welcome to the seventh of my Ultimate Ginter Mini Set Bracket posts!

For the first part of the bracket creation, we need to seed the various mini insert sets.  I thought it'd be fun to first have a vote for the best mini set within each year and use each vote winner as a top seed.  From there, I'll fill in the rest of the bracket with some of the non-winning mini sets and then the entire bracket will be set and we can have our giant vote-off!

I also hope that each of these Seeding Vote posts give you a bit of information about each of the mini sets for a specific year.  That should help with your voting as we move forward into the heart of the Ultimate Ginter Mini Set Bracket.  I laid out the rest of the ground rules in my introductory post so feel free to check that post out as well.  Now, we move on to the good stuff (and remember to vote at the bottom of the post)!

The Ultimate Ginter Mini Set Bracket:  Seeding Vote #7 (2013)

The 2013 Allen & Ginter set features the exact same number of different mini sets (8) and total mini cards to collect (116) as in the previous year.  Once again, the number 116 is kind of weird for a set collector (it's neither divisible by 9 nor 15, the two most common number of pockets per collector's page).  With that out of the way, let's update our running tally of mini sets and the total number of mini cards in each year's edition of Allen & Ginter:

• 2006:  0 sets, 0 total cards
• 2007:  3 sets, 65 total cards
• 2008:  6 sets, 107 total cards
• 2009:  5 sets, 90 total cards
• 2010:  9 sets, 181 total cards
• 2011:  8 sets, 95 total cards
• 2012:  8 sets, 116 total cards
• 2013:  8 sets, 116 total cards

Now, let's take a look at the mini sets for 2013!

All in a Day's Work
Note:  No image since I don't own any.

The first of two stealth inserts for 2013, All in a Day's work celebrates the common man...or post-Covid-19 you might say this set celebrates a lot of the true heroes out there in the world!

As for me, some years I decided to chase after the stealth minis and some years I've had to say "no thanks" to them.  For the most part, my decision comes down to how much I like a set, how expensive the minis seem to be, and how many (if any) I pull on my own.  For the All in a Day's work, I ended up having to skip out on this set despite there being a teacher depicted (a close fit to me as a college professor).

Checklist:
AIDW-B Butcher
AIDW-C Clergy
AIDW-CW Construction Worker
AIDW-F Firefighter
AIDW-N Nurse
AIDW-P Pilot
AIDW-PB Paperboy
AIDW-PO Police Officer
AIDW-S Soldier
AIDW-ST School Teacher

Codes, Cyphers & Cryptographs

For a good chunk of the brand's existence, Allen & Ginter has been known for its Ginter Code contest.  Therefore, an insert set such as the Codes, Ciphers, & Cryptographs is right at home in Allen & Ginter.  This is only a 10 card set but at least each card offers a small paragraph on the backside explaining what the deal is with the code or cipher. 

As for me, I own all of the non-stealth minis from 2013 A&G so I won't repeat myself within each set description.  I will say that putting together each of these posts has me at least considering trying to track down some of those other stealth sets but I don't think my wallet would like that plan much!

Checklist:
CCC-BC Beale Ciphers
CCC-DAG D'agapeyeff Cipher
CCC-DC Dorabella Cipher
CCC-IS Indus Script
CCC-KRY Kryptos
CCC-LA Linear A
CCC-PD The Phaistos Disc
CCC-SHE Shugborough Hall Inscription
CCC-VM The Voynich Manuscript
CCC-ZK Zodiac Killer

Famous Finds

I had to scan the Pompeii card mostly because it's the one place in this 10 card insert set that I've actually visited or seen in person.  As for Pompeii, with the right tour guide to lead you around I can tell you that the place is amazing.  Unfortunately, the last time I was at Pompeii I had a group of college students with me and all our guide seemed to think that the students would care about was the phallic images found all over the city.  Don't get me wrong, there's some fascinating stuff in Pompeii dealing with the sultry side of things (including a brothel with a mostly preserved, full-color "menu" of options for patrons to choose from).  That said, it's not the only thing in the city worth looking into!

Checklist:
FF-CA The Cave of Altamira
FF-CG Cairo Geniza
FF-DSS Dead Sea Scrolls
FF-KTT King Tut's Tomb
FF-L Olduvai Gorge / Lucy
FF-NHL Nag Hammadi Library
FF-P Pompeii
FF-PS The Pilate Stone
FF-QSH The Tomb of the Qin Shi Huang
FF-RS Rosetta Stone

The First Americans

The First Americans is a 15 card insert set celebrating what we often refer to as a group as "Indians" or perhaps being slightly more politically-correct, "Native Americans."  Baseball fans are no stranger to the concept of being politically (in)correct when it comes to Native Americans seeing as how MLB still has a team called the Indians.  My undergraduate college's mascot is the Warrior and for which they used to use an Indian (Native American) as a mascot.  Maybe a decade or so ago, they did away with that mascot and now they use a wolf (but they still call themselves the Warriors).  Personally, I don't feel any particular way about the entire controversy, though supposedly if I trace my own genes back far enough I'm 1/16 Native American.  I can't necessarily confirm at the moment but that's what I've been told!

Checklist:
TFA-ALG Algonquian
TFA-AP Apache
TFA-BNK Bannock
TFA-CHK Cherokee
TFA-CHY Cheyenne
TFA-CM Comanche
TFA-HPI Hopi
TFA-IRQ Iroquois
TFA-LK Lakota
TFA-NV Navajo
TFA-PUB Pueblo
TFA-PWN Pawnee
TFA-SX Sioux
TFA-WCT Wichita
TFA-ZN Zuni

Heavy Hangs the Head

The Heavy Hangs the Head is the largest of the 2013 A&G mini sets clocking in at 30 cards total.  This seems like as good of a time as any to complain about what Topps did in 2013 with their set numbering...you'll notice there are no numbers!  Instead, Topps moved to using letters for the "numbering" and as a set collector I don't think there's anything that annoys me more than letters instead of numbers.  What a giant pain and it feels super lazy on Topps' part.  Ugh.

Checklist:
HHH-ALX Alexander I
HHH-ATG Alexander the Great
HHH-AUG Augustus
HHH-CHR Charlemagne
HHH-CLE Cleopatra
HHH-CON Constantine
HHH-CTG Cyrus the Great
HHH-DK King David
HHH-EM Emperor Meiji
HHH-FA Ferdinand & Isabella
HHH-FRD Frederick II
HHH-GA Gustavus Adolphus
HHH-ITT Ivan the Terrible
HHH-JC Julius Caesar
HHH-KH King Henry VIII
HHH-KHN King Henry V
HHH-KJ King James
HHH-KL King Louis XIV
HHH-KR King Richard I
HHH-KW Krishnaraja Wadiyar III
HHH-NP Napoleon
HHH-PW Prince William
HHH-QB Queen Beatrix
HHH-QE Queen Elizabeth II
HHH-QSH Qin Shi Huang
HHH-QV Queen Victoria
HHH-RAM Ramses II
HHH-SLM Solomon
HHH-STM Suleiman the Magnificent
HHH-TUT Tutankhamun

Inquiring Minds

The strangest thing about this particular set is that it is 21 cards total in size.  Once again, I have no idea why Topps chose such a strange number (you may recall that they did something similar in the 2012 set as well with one of those insert sets). 

As far as the set itself goes, it's basically a celebration of philosophers, scientists, and other people of wisdom.  Looking through the list, you can see it's definitely a motley crew! 

Checklist:
IM-AR Aristotle
IM-AS Arthur Schopenhauer
IM-AUG St. Augustine
IM-BS Baruch Spinoza
IM-EP Epicurus
IM-FB Francis Bacon
IM-FN Friedrich Nietzsche
IM-GH Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
IM-HA Hannah Arendt
IM-IK Immanuel Kant
IM-JL John Locke
IM-JPS Jean-Paul Sartre
IM-KM Karl Marx
IM-NM Niccolo Machiavelli
IM-PTO Plato
IM-RD Rene Descartes
IM-SCR Socrates
IM-SDB Simone de Beauvoir
IM-ST Sun Tzu
IM-TA Thomas Aquinas
IM-TH Thomas Hobbes

Peacemakers

The Peacemakers set should be your favorite set if you've ever wanted a card of Mother Theresa.  Of course, this same insert set also features Bill Clinton so make of that what you will.

Checklist:
PM-AL Abraham Lincoln
PM-BC Bill Clinton
PM-DL Dalai Lama
PM-GND Gandhi
PM-GW George Washington
PM-HT Harriet Tubman
PM-JA Jane Addams
PM-JC Jimmy Carter
PM-MT Mother Teresa
PM-NM Nelson Mandela

People on Bicycles
Note:  No image since I don't own any.

The final insert set for 2013 is the second stealth insert.  Once again, I don't have any of these and so no scan but it's basically a set of people riding bicycles while doing different sorts of things. 

Checklist:
POB-A Amphibious
POB-BR Brief Respite
POB-M Messenger
POB-NH No Hands
POB-PF Penny-Farthing
POB-QT Quadacycle for Two
POB-T Tricycle
POB-TRI Triathlete
POB-TT Tricycle for Two
POB-WF Woodland Excursion

And that does it for 2013!  Now it's your turn to make your voice heard and help pick the top seed to come out of the 2013 set.  After this, we have six more seeding votes to get through and then we'll have determined all of our top seeds. From there, the real bracket fun will commence with a whole lot of pairs of sets matching up against one another.  I can't wait for the fun and hope you are looking forward to the experience as well!