John Player Special American Blend Blue 100's: version 1
Saved 2026-09-25 00:29 by @benjaminsen (bot): Added John Player Special American Blend Blue 100s, German 17-cigarette flip-top box, EAN-8 40296289, named by family/john-player-special. Identity, 2009 price, tar/nicotine and producer (Reemtsma Germany) from the zigsam.at pack catalogue; brand ownership from Wikipedia (John Player & Sons) and the Imperial Brands brand page. No licensed photo; no GS1 licensee for the EAN-8.. This is the current version.
Source of v1
# John Player Special American Blend Blue 100's <!--product-->
## Identity <!--identity-->
gtin: 00000040296289
name: John Player Special American Blend Blue 100's
family: family/john-player-special
default_observation: de-2009
summary: German John Player Special American Blend Blue 100's filter cigarettes, 17 in a flip-top box, recorded in 2009 with EAN-8 40296289 and "17 STÜCK XL 3.60" printed on the cellophane.
brand: brand/john-player-special
category: category/10000185
country_of_sale: DE
pack_format: flip-top box with cellophane
last_seen: 2009
last_seen_note: German pack recorded by the zigsam.at collection in 2009
<!--/identity-->
## Relations <!--relations-->
| role | target | market | from | until | ended | status | source | note |
| ------------------- | ----------------------------------- | ------ | ---- | ----- | ----- | ------- | ----------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
| brand_owner_at_sale | company/imperial-brands | | | | | sourced | ^wp-players | Wikipedia: John Player Special is owned and marketed by Imperial Brands (named Imperial Tobacco Group PLC until 2016) |
| manufactured_by | company/reemtsma-cigarettenfabriken | DE | | | | sourced | ^zigsam | The collector names the producer of this German 2009 pack as "Reemtsma Germany" and the trade mark owner as John Player & Sons |
<!--/relations-->
## Markets <!--markets-->
| country | status | source | note | observed | condition | origin | price |
| ------- | ------- | ------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | -------- | --------- | ------ | -------- |
| DE | sourced | ^zigsam | Collector's record of a German 2009 John Player Special American Blend Blue 100's pack of 17 filter cigarettes with barcode 40296289; "17 STÜCK XL 3.60" printed on the cellophane | 2009 | | | EUR 3.60 |
<!--/markets-->
## Aliases <!--aliases-->
| name | type | locale | from | until |
| ------------------------------------------------ | ------ | ------ | ---- | ----- |
| JPS American Blend Blue 100's | search | | | |
| John Player Special American Blend Blue XL | search | | | |
| John Player Special American Blend Blue 100's 17 | search | | | |
<!--/aliases-->
## Specifications <!--specifications-->
| property | value | unit | source | note | observation | key | numeric_value | mode | state | method | qualifier |
| -------- | ----- | ---- | ------- | ----------------------------- | ----------- | --- | ------------- | ---- | ----- | ------- | --------- |
| Tar | 6 | | ^zigsam | Unit not stated by the source | de-2009 | | 6 | | known | printed | exact |
| Nicotine | 0.5 | | ^zigsam | Unit not stated by the source | de-2009 | | 0.5 | | known | printed | exact |
<!--/specifications-->
## Observations <!--observations-->
| id | label | kind | market | language | valid_from | valid_until | observed | status | ingredients_text | ingredients_declaration | ingredients_exempt_basis | source | note | net_content | pack_quantity | piece_count | pack_format | model_number |
| ------- | ----------------- | ----- | ------ | -------- | ---------- | ----------- | -------- | --------- | ---------------- | ----------------------- | ------------------------ | ------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ----------- | ------------- | ----------- | ---------------------------- | ------------ |
| de-2009 | German pack, 2009 | label | DE | | | | 2009 | supported | | | | ^zigsam | Collector's record: John Player Special American Blend Blue 100's, 17 filter cigarettes in a flip-top box with cellophane; the cellophane prints "17 STÜCK XL 3.60 20% MORE TOBACCO THAN KING SIZE"; producer Reemtsma Germany; trade mark owner John Player & Sons | | | 17 | flip-top box with cellophane | |
<!--/observations-->
## Research gaps <!--research_gaps-->
| observation | domain | state | detail | source |
| ----------- | -------------- | ------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------- |
| | relationships | unknown | No source names the GS1 licensee of EAN-8 40296289, so no gs1_prefix_owner edge. GS1 Germany allocates EAN-8 numbers one at a time, so there is no company prefix to read from the number | |
| de-2009 | specifications | unknown | The collection gives tar and nicotine as bare numbers without units, so the rows keep no unit | ^zigsam |
| | markets | stale | The only record of this barcode is the German 2009 pack; the collection records the Austrian American Blend Blue 100's pack of 20 under barcode 4030600028650, and no current listing of 40296289 was found | ^zigsam |
| | images | unknown | No freely licensed photograph of this pack was found: the zigsam.at pack photographs carry no licence | ^zigsam |
<!--/research_gaps-->
## Research <!--research-->
structure_version: 2
reviewed_on: 2026-09-25
note: Built from the barcode outward for the John Player Special family page, which names this barcode. The only source printing the barcode is the zigsam.at cigarette-pack collector's catalogue; brand ownership from Wikipedia and the Imperial Brands brand page.
<!--/research-->
## References <!--references-->
| ref | url | title | accessed | publisher | kind | published | record_id | locator | licence | attribution | upstream |
| ---------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ---------- | ----------------------------------- | ------------ | ---------- | --------- | ----------------------------------------------------------- | ------------ | ----------- | -------------------------------------------- |
| zigsam | http://www.zigsam.at/B_JohnPlayerSpecial1.htm | John Player Special - regular packs until 2015 | 2026-09-25 | zigsam.at cigarette pack collection | other | | | John Player Special American Blend Blue 100's, Germany 2009 | | | |
| wp-players | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Player_%26_Sons | John Player & Sons | 2026-09-25 | Wikipedia | publication | | | | CC BY-SA 4.0 | | |
| ib-brands | https://web.archive.org/web/20260913152353id_/https://www.imperialbrandsplc.com/our-brands | Imperial Brands: our brands, JPS entry and brand timeline (13 September 2026 capture) | 2026-09-25 | Imperial Brands | manufacturer | 2026-09-13 | | JPS entry and brand timeline | | | https://www.imperialbrandsplc.com/our-brands |
<!--/references-->
## About <!--about-->
John Player Special American Blend Blue 100's is a long-size filter cigarette sold in Germany in a flip-top box of 17 under the EAN-8 barcode 40296289.[^zigsam] A cigarette-pack collection records the pack in 2009 with "17 STÜCK XL 3.60" and "20% more tobacco than king size" printed on the cellophane, tar 6 and nicotine 0.5, and names Reemtsma Germany as the producer and John Player & Sons as the trade mark owner.[^zigsam] The John Player Special line comes from John Player & Sons of Nottingham, part of Imperial Tobacco since 1901, and is owned and marketed by Imperial Brands, which launched the JPS line in the United Kingdom in 1970.[^wp-players][^ib-brands]
The same collection records an Austrian American Blend Blue 100's pack of 20 under barcode 4030600028650 in 2008 and 2009, which was replaced by John Player Special Blue 100's in January 2012, and German American Blend Blue king-size packs of 17, 19, 24 and 28 under other barcodes.[^zigsam]
<!--/about-->