I got a deck of Steamboat 999s for Christmas that are supposedly from World War II. They even come with a war bond ad card and they even have a double sided blank card. I would love to find out if these are legit but all my Google searches have led me no where and I don't know how to research these. Is there anyone that can help me out? There is a serial number under the Ace of Spades that reads either G1101 or GI101 I'm not sure which.
Could you provide some photos of the deck? It would be helpful to see:
- the box (or what's left of it, as they often don't outlast the cards), especially if the tax stamp/deck seal is still at least partially intact
- the Ace of Spades
- the Jokers
- the ad card
- a few court cards
With that, I can try to give you a clearer picture of the deck's age.
With what you've given so far, the Ace of Spades code is almost certainly "G1101" - a typical AoS code used in most of the 20th century was a single letter followed by a four-digit number. G-series codes were used on decks made in the following years: 1904, 1925, 1945, 1965, 1985 and 2005. As you mentioned that the ad card mentioned war bonds for sale, it's most likely a deck from 1945, but having more information would help confirm that.
Interesting bit of trivia: the Ace of Spades production codes began being used by USPC in 1904, so the G-series was the first to be produced.
My source for the AoS code data is
http://www.leeasher.com/playground/articles/how_to_date_a_deck_of_cards.html - I helped Lee update some of the information there.
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