I thought I would share one of my favorite decks with everyone on this site. Although it is a standard deck, it ranks among the top 5 in my collection for the following reasons.
It is an early example of Hochman NU19 National Club # 75 circa 1890, but what makes it so special to me is that it has the original "Skull & Cross-bones" back design which I have never seen or heard of anywhere else, however, if someone out there does have another original example using this back design, regardless of the brand, I would love to see and hear about it.
I am showing a picture of a page from a USPC sample book from 1898 that shows the name of this back design as being available under the National Apollo brand but this very same back design is not shown in this book under the National Club brand.
The second picture shows the original box that this deck came in and another similar original box for this same brand. This style of box was also originally used by National for their top of the line Bijou # 1 brand. The somewhat larger blue box houses this deck and has a pebbled surface. It also mentions The National Card Co. which is not shown on the smaller red box, which I believe to be later, although it houses another example of National Club # 75 but with a red back called "Ideal". Both decks have plain edges.
The third picture shows the Ace of Spades, the outstanding original back design and the wonderful accompanying joker for this brand.