Thrift store frankendeck?

[barbakane]

First time poster here, asking THE source for some help.
I found this deck at a local thrift store. Didn't open the box till I got home, since the tuck was taped closed. The ace looks like an example from Lee Asher's site about how to date a deck: https://www.leeasher.com/blog/how-to-date-a-deck-of-playing-cards.php

Possibly from a Jerry's Nuggets deck? But card backs are wrong. I know next to nothing about vintage decks, but for 50 cents who am I to say no. The tuck case alone is cool. And the Joker....where is THAT from? A frankendeck...a deck made of different pieces from decks unrelated. But again, 50 cents!

[andrew daugherty]

Nice find. The deck is a standard Aviator. The blue code on the ace will help you date it. It has a standard USPC ace and joker found with Aviator and other “generic” brands through the late 1980s, before a redesign of the ace and jokers for the Aviator brand.

The tuck box is from a Bicycle new fan back deck. The tax stamp will help,you determine an approximate date, certainly before the early 1960s. The shape of the tuck flap and the one color box printing puts it perhaps early 1950s or earlier. 

[barbakane]

Thanks for the help. Think I'll go back to that thrift store and see if anyone might have put the fan back deck in the wrong case. They had about 20 decks, some pinochle and other poker decks.

[Don Boyer]

Thanks for the help. Think I'll go back to that thrift store and see if anyone might have put the fan back deck in the wrong case. They had about 20 decks, some pinochle and other poker decks.

It's entirely possible that the deck's original owner simply put it in the wrong box or grabbed whatever box was available when the original box wore out.  It happens a lot with used decks.

It's a pretty cool find, for sure - you don't see the generic Ace of Spades as much these days.  I have an old Aviator bridge-sized deck from the 1970s that has that AoS in it.