Mellomints Tin Bothers Me

This old tin for Mellomints candy was auctioned off in REA's 2004 auction and the description has always annoyed the crap out of me.

Every time I am flipping the old 2004 catalog and I see this tin I get a little more perturbed. The description reads in part:

If you think your Mello Mint collection is complete, think again! Offered is a circa 1910 Mello Mint tin, measuring 8 inches tall and 10 inches in diameter, designed to be used by candy stores to dispense the presumably very delicious Mello Mint treats.

While I can't argue that this particular tin did contain Mellomint treats, they were certainly not the same thing that is related to the rare E105 Mello Mint cards. They have nothing in common other than the similar name.

The cards were distributed with Mello-Mint (notice the hyphen and so "s" at the end) gum, not sugar confections as the tin advertises.

The backs of the cards have the logo of the gum pictured and it clearly states, "Smith's Mello-Mint, The Texas Gum" and it further clarifies that the card are, "wrapped with each 5¢ package of SMITH'S MELLO-MINT GUM". This seems pretty clear to me that these cards were never packaged in tins like the one pictured above and sold in the REA auction under the premise of being related to the cards.

How could this tin possibly be listed as it was in such a respectable auction house's catalog? That really annoys the hell out of me. What the hell?

Thoughts anyone?

Enjoy the hobby all...