Playing Cards Still A Handful For Collectors

Collecting in the amazing world of playing cards is limited
only to one's personal taste and one's banking account.
In Las Vegas sometimes decks of colorful casino cards, after limited use at the table, are sometimes sold to interested parties for a dollar or two. In leading auction houses such as Skinner Inc. a rare 1909 United States Playing Card Company issue from Russell and Morgan Factories might bring $5,000.
Generally there are two methods of collecting playing cards. One, the most prevalent, is collecting by decks. The other is collecting all types of individual cards.
Some who like ‘decks’ may venture from regular issues to advertising, world’s fairs, the Olympics, other special events or particular products.
Meanwhile ‘singles’ might be by various back designs or perhaps variations of the Ace of Spades. Aces typically carry the name of the card’s maker and sometimes other relevant information.
“Playing cards have a rich and colorful history and one of the positive factors of collecting them, is that it fits all budgets”, notes Mark Pickvet author the book Collecting Playing Cards from Collector Books, “from inexpensive modern styles to a few select antique ones that reach into the thousands.”
Pickvet also defines the traditional types of either deck or single collecting. However the author maintains that the collecting of single cards with a unique design, “mostly advertising” is more popular in England than America.
Experts after all these years still debate whether playing cards were originally used for divine insight such as fortune telling, or simply for wagering. Most hold for the gambling theory but a case can be made for either.
Certainly woodblock hand-colored French Tarot cards were in use during the 18th century. Children’s playing cards were also in use during the 18th century as well. Also often hand-colored cards had only pictures without numbers or text. Others with brief text appeared to be forerunners of modern day flash cards.
The 19th century saw a wider variety of playing cards. Selections might include an 1806 French deck with the maker’s name J.C. Cotta included on an Ace in the 52 card set. An 1830s Austrian deck of Tarock might include 54 cards complete with trump cards. Tarock or tarocchi was a trick-taking game typically using tarot cards.
By the 1840s there were English and German version playing cards for The Round Game of Merry Cards or Trip to China. Later there was a British version of cards for the Game of Alice in Wonderland.
Playing card games abounded in both the United States and Europe during the 1890s. American catalogs were filled with choices including Madam Morrow’s Fortune Telling Cards, the Game of Old Maid, and Grandma’s Geographical Card Game. There was also the Flag Game which featured 60 cards bearing flags of all nations, brightly and correctly colored. Price for a boxed deck was 50 cents.
While the U.S. clearly did not invent nor first market playing cards the country did have a role to play.
“America holds a somewhat unusual place in the history of playing cards”, notes author Kathleen Wowk in the book Playing Cards of the World, “as in contrast to other countries, it did not start producing cards until comparatively recently. However, despite initial setbacks and delays, once the card producing industry was firmly established in North America, it contributed greatly to the development of cards by way of new patterns and improvements in basic designs.”
Other published reports to the contrary, American-made playing cards were being produced as early as the Civil War in the 1860s. At least two firms provided playing cards to Federal troops during that war. The American Card Company produced decks of Union Cards as early as 1862. H. A. Caswell of New York was also awarded a government contract to supply troops with playing cards in the 1860s. They were described as containing “love scenes by French artists, elegant in design.”
The United States Playing Card Company, based in Cincinnati, Ohio, was offering is popular Bicycle brand of playing cards by the 1880s. Initially a rider on a high-wheeled model bicycle was featured. Later it was replaced with a chain-driven ‘safety’ bike.
“One of the fascinations of playing cards is their variety and beauty, coupled with the irony that most people take them completely for granted”, noted author Wowk decades ago.
Wowk divided collectible playing cards into two groups. One was for specific card games including everything from poker to whist (a bridge-related game using a deck of 52 cards). The other group was what Wowk called nonstandard which included geography, mathematics, heraldry, and history. An example of that group might include playing cards which taught American soldiers different images of enemy airplanes. They were distributed as early as World War II and were updated at later times in the 20th century.
Much to the joy of collectors the variety of playing cards continues to be nearly limitless.
Casinos and gambling sites alone are prolific sources of numerous cards. Other major fields include agriculture, utilities, airlines, and soft drink advertisers. Best-selling price guides routinely list playing card items ranging from Apollo 11 to Raggedy Ann, and from Boy’s Town to the U.S. Bicentennial.
While truly antique playing cards are often costly, so-called modern playing cards are much less so. Book author Pickvet offers moreover that ‘newer’ decks from the 1970s have much better art and graphics than older decks of the 1950s and 1960s.
This author sees ‘good buys’ in many advertising related cards including liquor, cigarettes, cruise liners, and such. Meanwhile trains or railroad-related playing cards “also garner a lot of attention on auction sites, expect to pay more for them since their demand is higher.”

Recommended reading:
Collecting Playing Cards by Mark Pickvet, Collector Books.