Known Box/Packing Variants
There are at least three variants of the 703, but there is a possibility of a fourth.
Two versions will have no patent text, only produced (for the US) for 1961-62. One will have the US price $2.95 and the other will have the Canadian price of $3.50. First is the US version:
Then the Canadian:
Then around 1962-63, the US boxes were updated and given patent text. The Canadian version did not have this update:
There is the possibility that another Canadian variant of the 703 exists, as the top of the box in this Canadian newspaper is printed instead of having the plain top for the 10x10.
Box/Overview
This set stood as a slight upgrade to the 702 Basic Set, a slightly larger tall box/tube set that used a 10x10 red baseplate to cap the set and contained a basic assortment of parts.
It is a repackaged version of a pre-existing European LEGO set (700/3), just in the unique North American tall box format:
It is probably useful, however, to show the relative size of the 703 compared to the other tube sets: the 702 and 705:
Contents
Here is a near complete example from 1961-62 that omits the patent text below the logos:
The set pretty consistently contained red/white elements through its life. Some other examples are found substituting in a few yellow parts, though it's unclear whether that is a result of sets mixing together or if it was originally like that.