I don't know Don. From the information I got from USPCC, It's either Embossed or Smooth as the finish. People seem to think there is some kind of finish sprayed on the cards which doesn't seem to be true. I'll double check with Tiffany.
There's a lot of confusion about that.
Technically, "finish" is the texturing of the card. Embossed or smooth are your choices. The texturing used to be applied in the coating applied to the surface of the cards through the use of cloth rollers - hence the reason why many textured finishes are named after varieties of fabric, such as linen, linoid, cambric, etc. Those were the fabrics used to make the rollers which applied the coating to the card, resulting in a finish that looked like the fabric's "footprint".
As USPC changed hands a number of times going from the classic card manufacturing days to today, many of the processes used to make cards were modernized (a.k.a. made less expensive). These days, the finish of a card is either flat (smooth, ivory, etc.) or embossed (air cushion, linen, cambric, etc.) and sold under a variety of the old trade names. The embossing is created by pressure from steel rollers with a regular pattern of bumps, creating the dimples in the card's surface - the coating no longer plays a part in the actual finish of the deck. However, for marketing purposes, USPC never updated the terminology, hence why coatings like "Magic Finish" are called finishes rather than coatings or sealants or some other technical term.
So, you have exactly four choices of finish and coating when ordering cards from USPC. The "finishes" I list are actually the coatings!
Smooth - standard finish.
Smooth - Magic Finish
Textured - standard finish (the default for most decks USPC makes, in particular their major brands' basic models).
Textured - Magic Finish (the default for custom decks, unless the deck designer specifies otherwise).
Smooth decks these days are fairly uncommon, though there are some still in production, such as Streamline, Aviator and the "Ivory" finish versions of any CARC deck made by USPC to date. Some of their novelty decks like "The Dog", "The Cat" and "American Flag" decks use a smooth finish as well.
Most of the line is, instead, embossed, because of how the pockets of air created by the embossing gives the cards improved glide characteristics against each other and any firm surface, much like how a golf ball travels further if it has a dimpled surface rather than a smooth one. Interesting fact: the guys at "Mythbusters" proved that a car with a dimpled surface will also travel with less wind resistance than a car with a smooth surface, raising the interesting design idea of selling cars that look a lot like the surface of golf balls for greater fuel efficiency without a need for making modifications to the engine...
Now, if you don't mind, Russell, we are intruding on someone's introduction topic...
