Question for the experts

[publius]

I've got a bike bridge deck from 1953, and the bottom of the tuck says "High Finish". Was high finish the standard for these bridge decks, or is this an outlier? Thanks!

[Don Boyer]

I know that USPC used High Finish a lot for the Aristocrat decks - I've seen examples of it from the 1960s.  I don't know how common it was for Bicycles, but it wasn't unheard of, that's for sure.

Anyone else with more knowledge about this care to chime in?

[publius]

Thanks for the reply Don. I saw a guy on Ebay selling Rider Backs in "High Finish" from the 50s or 60s for quite a chunk of money. I think he may even be a member of this forum. Anyway, I got to looking at my decks and noticed one of my old bridge decks had the high finish. I found nothing about it online anywhere. Sounds like USPCC may have gone through a short phase where they experimented beyond Aristocrats with this particular finish. I'll consider my deck to be a gem until I hear otherwise!

[skinny]

Guilty as charged! I came into a number of decks recently and got a good price on that last pair. The top 3 bidders were over $200. 

I can't add much info. Here's what I know without any reference material handy. The norms for the standard run of Bicycle cards were Ivory and Air-Cushion for a long time, though I've got Bicycle decks that omit the finish type on the box altogether. High Finish, like Ivory, are smooth.

At some unknown point with the most recent of US tax stamps until another unknown point with USPCC blue stamps, there were High Finish. I have only seen Bicycle High Finish in the simplest box style -- the box printing is red and blue with some gold borders, the 4 edges show their finish, 808, Made in U.S.A., and The U.S. Playing Card Co. I'm not aware of Ivory Finish nearly that modern. I do have a tax-stamped open pair of HF as well in the exact same box. That does some narrowing down, but not much.

Right now, there is an opened Bridge Size High Finish deck on eBay for around $90. Is there a tax stamp or other reason you'd say your deck is 1953? All the High Finish Bicycle (wide) decks I've come across have appeared to be right around the 1965 tax cutoff, possibly into 1973? Other brands show this finish earlier.

I, too, would like more information. My guess is you have a gem.

[Chuqii]

I have one opened Bicycle 808 High Finish deck with code Y1338, post-1950 tuck, two-digit zip code on the Guarantee joker, and tax stamp, so that would put my deck in 1958.  So they go back at least that far.

[Chuqii]

And just for fun I did a "High Finish" search on Google books.  Turns out USPCC advertised a High Finish in addition to an Ivory Finish back in 1900.  Who knows if there was any difference.  I clipped the ad from the Monthly Bulletin of the Bureau of the American Republics

[publius]

Great info - thanks guys

[Don Boyer]

And just for fun I did a "High Finish" search on Google books.  Turns out USPCC advertised a High Finish in addition to an Ivory Finish back in 1900.  Who knows if there was any difference.  I clipped the ad from the Monthly Bulletin of the Bureau of the American Republics

I get a kick out of how they refer to "French-sized" decks - in the same dimensions that we currently use for bridge decks.

Technically, that 1958 deck has a "postal district" or "zone number" on the ad card, not a zip code.  ZIP is an acronym for "Zone Improvement Plan" and the ZIP code didn't exist until 1963 - the same year that the Post Office implemented two-letter, capitalized state abbreviations.  Originally a five-digit number, it was expanded to ZIP+4 (nine digits: the original five digits, a hyphen and four more digits to further specify geographic location) in 1983, but ZIP+4 is rarely used by anyone other than high-volume/corporate customers.