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Playing Card Chat ♠ ♥ ♣ ♦ => A Cellar of Fine Vintages => Topic started by: badpete69 on May 14, 2014, 11:25:49 PM

Title: For use by the US Government Only sealed decks with stamp
Post by: badpete69 on May 14, 2014, 11:25:49 PM

Also picked up these 2 bridge decks just because I was intrigued. Have no clue what they are.  I will post more pics when I get them

(http://netthreshold.com/us11.JPG)

Title: Re: For use by the US Government Only sealed decks with stamp
Post by: Mike Ratledge on May 15, 2014, 08:36:25 AM

I've seen similar decks before, Pierre, but they have always had a little more information on them. Typically the decks around WWII time-frame have a "License #1" and verbiage about who the maker is - which I'm going to suppose was decided by who got the contract.   I have numerous decks of "Navy" and "Army" training (not playing cards as we know them) like identifying planes from each country (I'm remembering that was a 65-card deck?) by the insignia for training purposes, and another (I assume Air Force, might be Army) deck that identifies planes by their silhouette.  Beyond that - it's a mystery to me.

Title: Re: For use by the US Government Only sealed decks with stamp
Post by: 52plusjoker on May 15, 2014, 09:20:11 AM

Think Mike is correct about WWII time-frame. Quite likely standard USPC cards made especially for US Government use - quite likely in the military. If you open one, let us know!

Title: Re: For use by the US Government Only sealed decks with stamp
Post by: Don Boyer on May 16, 2014, 04:00:07 PM

I've seen pictures of deck stamps for USG-produced decks indicating that the deck was free of tax.  The fact that yours have a tax stamp would lead me to think that perhaps this was something originally made for such purposes but later sold off, perhaps in on-base post exchange (PX) stores.  It's a guess, but it's a logical one.  Another possibility is that the government at some point started applying the tax to decks made even for themselves.  Again, a guess.

Title: Re: For use by the US Government Only sealed decks with stamp
Post by: Mike Ratledge on May 18, 2014, 08:30:57 PM

I dug out the deck I was thinking about while I was rearranging my collection and here it is:

Title: Re: For use by the US Government Only sealed decks with stamp
Post by: andrew daugherty on May 18, 2014, 10:27:15 PM

The box, the font on the bottom (bridge) and the obvious B & B on the tax stamp would indicate this deck is likely a Brown & Bigelow Remembrance deck, like so many of the ubiquitous advertising decks of the era.

Nice find. It is the first I have seen of a B & B deck made for "government use."  USPC, Arrco and Whitman made plenty. 

The big question is what is on the backs? The standard yellow, red and black glowing ace and at least one juggler or Redislip joker are informed guesses for the faces.

Andrew. (Chris Turner, long time 52 Plus Joker and CPCC member and collector)

Title: Re: For use by the US Government Only sealed decks with stamp
Post by: badpete69 on May 19, 2014, 10:39:29 AM

As soon as I get the decks, i will post pics of the backs