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Here is a Piatnik deck celebrating Alphonse Mucha. Each card has a different picture on it. The back is rather boring, but the fronts make up for it, though the reproductions aren't always the highest quality:

Another single deck from Piatnik, this time featuring pictures of old military uniforms from around the world. The back is the rows of soldiers in the upper middle.

And last one for tonight, a Piatnik Bridge/Whist/Poker deck. They are a little thinner than standard card sizes. The number cards are standard, no pictures, though they do have numbers in all 4 corners, not just 2.

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Jock1971 wrote:Samurai007 i`m so jealous of your Piatnik decks, all mine are standard but with cool backs.

Thanks! I found the vast majority of them on ebay, and a few from dealers or Amazon. I have more, including several double decks like Japan and Folklore, that I haven't shown yet.

Love the Mucha and bridge/whist poker decks! Lovely courts!

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This is a rather happy looking set of royalty - enjoying their luxurious life style.
Courts so often look grim, and there are standard patterns where they even look depressed or suicidal.

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Wow, you really did your research on these J. I always thought that joker looked like he was up to no good, and enjoying it.

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Piatnik # 2141: Middle East "Arab" Double Deck

This double by Piatnik came to me in a plain gold foil box so I won't bother showing the box.
The artist is Franz Kiengraber of Austria and the cards were first printed in 1978.
The courts show old Turks (Spades), Bedouins (Hearts).
The Middle Eastern style letters on the Ace of Hearts actually spell Piatnik.
Tuareg (Clubs), and Berbers(Diamonds).
Tuareg has an odd alternate spelling on the cards as Toureg.
If you are not seeing the pip cards at the right then click on the image to see all of it.[/color]

I just ran across something a bit puzzling. I acquired the Piatnik Shakespeare set with sealed decks this week and noticed that there is a slight color difference between the two decks. One of the decks has numbers on the Ace of Spades and the other doesn't. But, the biggest thing is that one deck seems to be thicker than the other. At first I thought it was because it is more warped than the other but, it's something you can actually feel when you align the center (straightest) parts together. Thoughts???

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The whiter, thicker deck also seems to have more irregular corners.

I think Jase is right about your decks being from different print runs. I have a Kem double deck set where the codes on the aces of the 2 decks actually give different printing years. Having stockpiles of cards printed, waiting to go into boxes, was common amoung the various card companies, and many collectors have commented on their own Kem doubles being the same.

My own Shakespeare set, in a box like yours with no barcode, has numbers on the Ace of Spades of both decks, and the other Piatnik sets I have all have the numbers on the Ace of Hearts, from the older decks to the ones that have a website on the box. It may be that they were bringing the Shakespeare decks into line with their other designs in having the numbers on the Heart rather than Spade ace, and yours is a crossover set. A different print run with new card stock too. (A change in ownership or leadership often leads to changes like this in the cards.)

If you are going to open them you could check the second deck to see if the Heart has the numbers.

Thanks for the info! That they might have been from 2 print runs was my first guess as well. I just wasn't sure if the difference in numbers might be an indicator of different years. Now I'm tempted to open the one without numbers to see if they are on the Ace of Hearts but, I don't think I will juuust yet.

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Are these both regular card sized Jase?
The Jeu du Destin remind me of The Book of Destiny by Grimaud, except more elegent. Perhaps Grimaud based theirs on the original Destin deck. The Grimaud deck is oversize at 7.7 cm x 11.5 cm.

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Wow, 3 days!
Did it land on your doorstep with a little parachute attached?

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