The Strangest Deck of cards You have seen?

[RSLancastr]

What is the strangest deck of playing cards you ever have seen?

For me it is probably this:

Back when my playing card web site "The Bob Lancaster Gallery of Unusual Playing Cards" was a going concern, I occasionally received email fgrom people wanting to send me complimentary copies of decks they had recently designed/published.

On one such deck, every card was a close-up black-and-white photograph of a human penis.

One photo was on all of the Aces, another on all of the Deuces, and so on.

The only one I recall was on (I think) the Jacks, and was a photo of what I learned is called a "Prince Albert" piercing (Google it if you are curious, and have a strong constitution). Ouch!

I think that the one on the Joker had a little Jester's cap on.

Seriously.

If I've seen a stranger deck of cards, I don't recall it offhand.

What about you?

[Strag]

I have to thank you for NOT post pics of that deck

I have a strange one I recently got, will try to post pics.

[Evan]

The strangest one that I've seen is probably that creepy doll deck on kickstarter a while back.

[RSLancastr]

I have to thank you for NOT post pics of that deck

You're quite welcome.

Yes, that would have been inappropriate on MANY levels.

I have a strange one I recently got, will try to post pics.

I anxiouisly await it!

[RSLancastr]

The strangest one that I've seen is probably that creepy doll deck on kickstarter a while back.

Guess I missed that one.

Dolls can definitely be creepy, thgough!

[Evan]

I found the project. It's actually called The Creepy Doll deck...

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/cre ... k?ref=live" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[rave]

[Strag]

I have a strange one I recently got, will try to post pics.

I anxiouisly await it!

OK here it is. I was at a "coffeeshop" in Amsterdam recently and picked this up. It was made to celebrate their 20th anniversary. The pips are all hand drawn and the court characters are, well... smoking something. Hopefully you can see them in this pic.

[malanthrax]

I have a strange one I recently got, will try to post pics.

I anxiouisly await it!

OK here it is. I was at a "coffeeshop" in Amsterdam recently and picked this up. It was made to celebrate their 20th anniversary. The pips are all hand drawn and the court characters are, well... smoking something. Hopefully you can see them in this pic.

That is amazing! I also love the name.

[Strag]

That is amazing! I also love the name.

You can get them here http://webshop.abraxas.tv/miscellaneous ... -deck.html for 6 euro (no idea on shipping).

Unfortunately the quality is not the best... done as many off brands are by a regular printer are too glossy and stock too thin. Corners are not cut right either. But they are fun!

[RSLancastr]

I have a strange one I recently got, will try to post pics.

I anxiouisly await it!

OK here it is. I was at a "coffeeshop" in Amsterdam recently and picked this up. It was made to celebrate their 20th anniversary. The pips are all hand drawn and the court characters are, well... smoking something. Hopefully you can see them in this pic.

Thanks for sharing that Mal, and thanks Strag, for the link!

Hmm. How much is 6 Euros in USD these days?

It reminds me of the 1970s deck "Royal Flash", where the four suits are Marijuana Leaves, Peyote buttons, and two other drugs. The courts in the deck are all partaking of their suit's drug. The Joker is labelled "Smoker".

I featured one card from the deck in my old web site's page on "non-standard suits", and one of the deck's creators contacted me. He wanted to reissue the deck, and wanted some advice. I ended up creating a web site for the reissue, and was paid with (IIRC) ten decks of the issue (I would have done it for free, but being paid in decks appealed to me).

One very cool thing:

The guy who I did this for showed me some things in the original edition that I had not noticed, particularly that the names of the original creators and some of their friends were worked into the court cards, but were only visible with a magnifying glass.

When the reissue was printed, he showed me that one of the courts (I believe it was the King of Marijuana) had been slightly modified: Using a magnifying glass you can see m,y name "Bob L." in its design! It was his way of showing his appreciation for what I had done.

How cool is that!

[cosmicsecret]

That is amazing! I also love the name.

You can get them here http://webshop.abraxas.tv/miscellaneous ... -deck.html for 6 euro (no idea on shipping).

Unfortunately the quality is not the best... done as many off brands are by a regular printer are too glossy and stock too thin. Corners are not cut right either. But they are fun!

6€ each deck and shipping two decks to germany is 13€ = 25€ for two decks....kinda steer. well next time i´m in amsterdam gonna pick up 2 decks
Thank you for the info were to get them .

[MJF]

Now that we've legalized Marijuana possession and personal use in the State of Washington, perhaps I can order more than just the deck from this place in Amsterdam...

Just saying...

Seriously though, eventually might have to pick up one or two of those decks as it's an interesting design and reasonably priced (shipping is going to kill though)

[RSLancastr]

I live here in Oregon, but I was in Amsterdam on business one weekend in 1999, and did visit a "coffee house".

I don't smoke (anything), I don't even drink beer, so I drank a soda and watched people getting a buzz. I wonder if it was that same coffee house?

While in town I visited a playing card collecting friend who lives there, and got to see some of his exquisite collection.

What a great trip that was, card-wise... I spent a week in Paris, during which I visited an incredible Playing card museum in Issy Les Moulaneaux.

I spent a week in Netherlands, during which I spent one day in Amstyerdam with my card-collecting friend Arno, and a day in Belgium, where I visited tghe museum/factory of Carta Mundi, one of Europe's bviggest maker of playing cards.

I spent a week in England, during which I visited with a friend who is a vendor of antique and modern decks.

Quite a trip!

[Strag]

I don't smoke (anything), I don't even drink beer, so I drank a soda and watched people getting a buzz. I wonder if it was that same coffee house?

Probably not. There are quite a few and this one is a little off the beaten path on a side street.

I spent a week in Netherlands, during which I spent one day in Amstyerdam with my card-collecting friend Arno, and a day in Belgium, where I visited tghe museum/factory of Carta Mundi, one of Europe's bviggest maker of playing cards.

Damn, didn't realize Carta Mundi is in Belgium. I'll definitely have to check that out next time I'm there. Looks like it's between Eindhoven and Antwerp which should not be too hard to get to.

[dazzleguts]

THIS

http://www.endebrock.de/coll/pages/d2015.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

scroll down to see the cards

I have the skat version of the deck so I don't have the jokers

@RSLancastr
Thanks for the info on the Royal Flash. I must have the first printing since I couldn't find your name. Did find these though:

Mike on the K of Marijuana
Casey on the Q of Marijuana
Debbie on the Q of peyote
Dava on the Q of poppies
BR on the K of mushrooms (right ear)
Bobbi on the Q of mushrooms
Brad on the J of mushrooms

Had to use a loupe since the magnifying glass wasn't strong enough - those are some tiny names man. What year was the reprint?

[CBJ]

Well, it may not be the strangest.. but I thought it belonged in this thead...








CBJ

[RSLancastr]

Nice, CBJ (me want!!), but... what's so unusual about it?



Back when I first started collecting decks with non-standard (custom) courts, I did not know those terms, and so described what I collected as playing cards "with unusual Jacks, Queens and Kings".

When I would say that, people would usually ask what I meant by "unusual", so I took to carrying around a printout I'd made on my color printer of some cards from my collection (this was mostly useful when I would tell clerks in an antique store just what I was looking for).

Usually, no matter how blatantly unusual the cards I had printed out, people would look at them and ask "what's so unusual about them?"

At first I thought they were kidding me. I mean, I would show them printouts of cards like these:



...and people would look at them and say, in all seriousness, "What's so unusual about them?"

And they weren't kidding!

I finally concluded that most people had no idea what standard courts looked like, even after a lifetime of lookinh at them!

But it was even more than that.

If someone said that of the cards above, I might say something like "Well, to start with, they arfe cats!!"

The people would examine the printout for a moment and then say something like "Oh yeah, so they are!"

I dunno, maybe their minds saw what they expected to see, rather than what was actually there.

It's a phenomenon on which many a stage illusion illusion relies: the audience 's minds "see" what they expect to see (which is what the magician knows they will think they actually saw).

I would hope that your simean deck would be unusual enough to get past this "expectation" and force the mind into seeing what was actually there, but I would not bet on it.

So, is that character the mascot for that brand of jerky?

Where did you pick it up?

[RSLancastr]

That is amazing! I also love the name.

You can get them here http://webshop.abraxas.tv/miscellaneous ... -deck.html for 6 euro (no idea on shipping).

Shipping to here (Oregon, USA) IS €24.30 - Ouch! That's a little over $30 (USD)! No way am I about to pay that much for shipping a deck of cards...

[Strag]

Shipping to here (Oregon, USA) IS €24.30 - Ouch! That's a little over $30 (USD)! No way am I about to pay that much for shipping a deck of cards...

Yeah it's bad, even for Europe as well. Next time I'm in Amsterdam I'll pick up a few extras and see if I can't work something out for members on here.

-Strag

[RSLancastr]

I don't smoke (anything), I don't even drink beer, so I drank a soda and watched people getting a buzz. I wonder if it was that same coffee house?

Probably not. There are quite a few and this one is a little off the beaten path on a side street.

I don't recall where the one I saw was.

Damn, didn't realize Carta Mundi is in Belgium. I'll definitely have to check that out next time I'm there. Looks like it's between Eindhoven and Antwerp which should not be too hard to get to.

It's in Turnhout. There are other card manufacturers nearby, so the town is to playing cards in Europe what Detroit is to cars in the USA.

Everywhere you look in Turnhout, there are playing card references.

Downtown, they were flying dozens of flags, each bearing a large Heart, Club, Diamond or Spade.

Local businesses get into the theme as well. I ate at a McDonalds there which had cool posters of antique playing cards on its walls.

Very cool place for a playing card collector!

[RSLancastr]

@RSLancastr
Thanks for the info on the Royal Flash. I must have the first printing since I couldn't find your name. Did find these though:

Mike on the K of Marijuana
Casey on the Q of Marijuana
Debbie on the Q of peyote
Dava on the Q of poppies
BR on the K of mushrooms (right ear)
Bobbi on the Q of mushrooms
Brad on the J of mushrooms

Had to use a loupe since the magnifying glass wasn't strong enough - those are some tiny names man. What year was the reprint?

I believe it was around 1999-2000, but I'm not sure.

[Strag]

Shipping to here (Oregon, USA) IS €24.30 - Ouch! That's a little over $30 (USD)! No way am I about to pay that much for shipping a deck of cards...

Yeah it's bad, even for Europe as well. Next time I'm in Amsterdam I'll pick up a few extras and see if I can't work something out for members on here.

-Strag

As it now turns out, I'll be back at the end of the month. I'll pick up some extra decks and make a post here when I figure out how much shipping will be. Hopefully not more than $10-$11.

-Strag

[RSLancastr]

I look forward to it, Strag!