Post Your Vintage Collection - Your Newest & Most Prized Acquisitions

[52plusjoker]

I can see why you like those R&M faces so much - they're really well done.

I'm curious, what purpose does the Progressive Euchre card serve?  I've never even heard of one until I read your post.

These are great cards because they have a super ad for R&M on the backs - otherwise they are twos and threes that came with the deck and are used to keep track of the score while playing. Most US Euchre decks of the 1860's to 1890's came with these extra four cards

[Cryptocard27]

I'm curious, what purpose does the Progressive Euchre card serve?  I've never even heard of one until I read your post.

I could not say more to the answer of Tom. However, you can look at this link to have some additional pictures and information :

http://www.wopc.co.uk/usa/uspcc/cabinet.html

[Mike Ratledge]

Hello to you all!!
I'm a french collector of american playing cards and B.P Grimaud decks. I am so pleased to be here and I hope share with you a lot of discussion about the fascinating world of playing cards.
My favorite makers are : Russell & Morgan , Caterson & Brotz ; Andrew Dougherty ; Samuel Hart  and I am particularly interested in Perfection PCC decks and Longley & Brothers playing cards.
The deck for which I desire most is the Andrew Dougherty Murphy Varnish deck. It's just an attractive dream for the moment, but for this so fascinating hobby, I think the patience is never a problem, and in my opinion, the best puzzle is the one that we build most slowly possible, to maximally protect the pleasure that we have to realize it..
...

I recently picked up a pair of excellent condition Perfection decks, one PU4 and one PU5 both sans joker and box, as typical for 1880's decade decks.  For some reason nobody seems to look on eBay for those - I paid less than $100 for the pair.

I've found several interesting vintage B P Grimaud decks here lately as well, but nothing worthy of note (I don't think).  A couple of them in mint condition, though - which is unusual here in the states.

[Don Boyer]

I'm curious, what purpose does the Progressive Euchre card serve?  I've never even heard of one until I read your post.

I could not say more to the answer of Tom. However, you can look at this link to have some additional pictures and information :

http://www.wopc.co.uk/usa/uspcc/cabinet.html

Out of curiosity, what's on the other side of the card?  The side displayed is the back, yes?

[52plusjoker]

I'm curious, what purpose does the Progressive Euchre card serve?  I've never even heard of one until I read your post.

I could not say more to the answer of Tom. However, you can look at this link to have some additional pictures and information :

http://www.wopc.co.uk/usa/uspcc/cabinet.html

Out of curiosity, what's on the other side of the card?  The side displayed is the back, yes?

The backs are black with R&M 'advertising'. The fronts are two's and three's [standard pip cards] - two of each - which assisted in scoring.

[52plusjoker]

Hello to you all!!
I'm a french collector of american playing cards and B.P Grimaud decks. I am so pleased to be here and I hope share with you a lot of discussion about the fascinating world of playing cards.
My favorite makers are : Russell & Morgan , Caterson & Brotz ; Andrew Dougherty ; Samuel Hart  and I am particularly interested in Perfection PCC decks and Longley & Brothers playing cards.
The deck for which I desire most is the Andrew Dougherty Murphy Varnish deck. It's just an attractive dream for the moment, but for this so fascinating hobby, I think the patience is never a problem, and in my opinion, the best puzzle is the one that we build most slowly possible, to maximally protect the pleasure that we have to realize it..
...

I recently picked up a pair of excellent condition Perfection decks, one PU4 and one PU5 both sans joker and box, as typical for 1880's decade decks.  For some reason nobody seems to look on eBay for those - I paid less than $100 for the pair.

I've found several interesting vintage B P Grimaud decks here lately as well, but nothing worthy of note (I don't think).  A couple of them in mint condition, though - which is unusual here in the states.

Nice find the Perfections which are much less common than the major makers of the time - the Dougherty is quite early and nice back. Post up a few Grimaud's and you'll find out more.

[Mike Ratledge]

Interesting fact: the address for Dougherty (80 Centre St in Manhattan) is now the city Courthouse.

Let's see if I have anything already pictured. Not much, I found one interesting Michelangelo deck, but no clue as to date. Also a mid-70's Around the World in 80 Days (Jules Verne) deck which has all custom faces, but it is not rare. The one I found is mint / sealed as well.

I'll have to hunt down a few more and take photos...

I found pix from another source that I put onto my NAS for future reference:

[Mike Ratledge]

I've seen so many different versions of both "Enardoe" and "Deland" decks since we looked at the vintage one (Deland) I bought in a Steamboat #220 tuck, and I found a vintage Enardoe "Double-backs" deck on eBay this evening for $4 - mint, sealed and vintage 1940's maybe early 50's (blue).  There seem to be quite a few varieties even 'new' now, like a "Haunted" deck, "Force" deck, "Blank faces" deck, "Cheek to Cheek" deck - all Enardoe, but apparently contemporary and not vintage.  I'm supposing someone bought the rights to reproduce them and is churning them out like french fries.  Most are in the $5-$7 range but I've seen quite a few listed in the $20-$23 range on eBay and Amazon.  Curious...  I'll have to take some pictures when it comes in, but I'm 99% certain that it is a mint 1945 - 1950's deck, possibly earlier.  The Deland "automatic" or "$100 deck" is easy to find, maybe $5-$7 as well brand new, but they are now made in China vice USPC Co.

The Deland "Nifty" I have is definitely somewhere around the 1930's or maybe earlier, per Hochman's could be early 20's as I recall (I'm not looking at it nor my notes).  The instructions for the "Automatic" or "$100 deck" (clockwork based) are easy to find, the other 4 that I've found aren't.  I've just about decoded the Nifty, and as I noted once I'm certain I have it exact I'll cobble up a PDF file in Acrobat.

[Don Boyer]

I've seen so many different versions of both "Enardoe" and "Deland" decks since we looked at the vintage one (Deland) I bought in a Steamboat #220 tuck, and I found a vintage Enardoe "Double-backs" deck on eBay this evening for $4 - mint, sealed and vintage 1940's maybe early 50's (blue).  There seem to be quite a few varieties even 'new' now, like a "Haunted" deck, "Force" deck, "Blank faces" deck, "Cheek to Cheek" deck - all Enardoe, but apparently contemporary and not vintage.  I'm supposing someone bought the rights to reproduce them and is churning them out like french fries.  Most are in the $5-$7 range but I've seen quite a few listed in the $20-$23 range on eBay and Amazon.  Curious...  I'll have to take some pictures when it comes in, but I'm 99% certain that it is a mint 1945 - 1950's deck, possibly earlier.  The Deland "automatic" or "$100 deck" is easy to find, maybe $5-$7 as well brand new, but they are now made in China vice USPC Co.

The Deland "Nifty" I have is definitely somewhere around the 1930's or maybe earlier, per Hochman's could be early 20's as I recall (I'm not looking at it nor my notes).  The instructions for the "Automatic" or "$100 deck" (clockwork based) are easy to find, the other 4 that I've found aren't.  I've just about decoded the Nifty, and as I noted once I'm certain I have it exact I'll cobble up a PDF file in Acrobat.

Now if I'm not mistaken (and it's very possible that I am), the Nifty will have 104 circles on the back at the least, with at least 52 on each half of the back.  The clock pattern from the Automatic or $100 deck should be just like that being used on this deck to indicate card values, and each of those fifty-two circles have marks that would tell you, in order, the entire deck from top to bottom.  It's not as sophisticated as the Automatic marks in that with those, you can also determine a card's location using the suit/value while this only works in the opposite manner, telling you the value/suit of a card at a given location.  But it's also less obviously marked - barely!  A gullible spectator could possibly be led to believe that the back pattern is just something random or repeating from card to card, but today's spectator, aware of the existence of marked cards, would probably be more suspicious.

I'm also of the belief that the stack order used for this deck will be the same stack order used for the Automatic/$100 decks.

[Mike Ratledge]

Sounds very close, Don - but not precisely what I am seeing using the logic of looking at the faces and only one dial (the others indicate next card, previous card, how many cards were cut, how many are left on the table, etc, etc like the Automatic deLand deck) but I'll finish this up later this week once I get off working 10 hours today.  Probably do the actual finish of the decode tomorrow.  It could well be that I'm letting one of the other dials confuse me, because unlike the Automatic deck these have small circle - about 100 of them as you noted, and not the familiar 12-clock ("improved"?) system on the Automatic/$100 Deck.  I'm a pattern recognition expert.  I'm sure I'll figure it out precisely before too terribly long and maybe make some headway on what the other circles decode to as well.

[Don Boyer]

Sounds very close, Don - but not precisely what I am seeing using the logic of looking at the faces and only one dial (the others indicate next card, previous card, how many cards were cut, how many are left on the table, etc, etc like the Automatic deLand deck) but I'll finish this up later this week once I get off working 10 hours today.  Probably do the actual finish of the decode tomorrow.  It could well be that I'm letting one of the other dials confuse me, because unlike the Automatic deck these have small circle - about 100 of them as you noted, and not the familiar 12-clock ("improved"?) system on the Automatic/$100 Deck.  I'm a pattern recognition expert.  I'm sure I'll figure it out precisely before too terribly long and maybe make some headway on what the other circles decode to as well.

I'm an amateur cryptanalyst and knowledgeable cryptographer (using "old school" methods and ciphers) so if you want to scan some cards and send them my way, perhaps I can give you a hand.

[Mike Ratledge]

An interesting find: "Advance" brand Australian deck made in Adelaide, looks to be 1900±10, I'm thinking. Odd that it appears to have USPCC standard courts. I am wondering if they were owned by or "borrowed" them? Anyone seen this deck before. It's novel for me.

My estimate on the date is because of the "Squeezers" and "Round Corners" on them., and comparison to decks of the period.

[Mike Ratledge]

Another eBay "steal": a mis-listed (spelling error) for a deck of Arpak 1928/9 "No Revoke" deck, but this one has a different back than the two I already found.  It went for $3.99 and nobody else bid on it.  I bought the other two for $30 and $24 respectively, but I've seen our friend Dan D list a deck in not quite as good condition for over $150, so - I'm certain it's only worth about 1/3rd of that amount.   It's not exactly "OB-1" or even "OB-anything", but - for $3.99 I'll live.

I don't make these things up - I have a special algorithm that I wrote myself to look for error/misspelled listings and I tend to find things that just don't come up for most people, I suppose.

[52plusjoker]

Never seen the Aussie deck but made under license from USPC or packaged to look Australian is a possibility. Date looks like 1910-20 - my guess. The Arpak relatively common - maybe $30 mint would be maximum value.

[Mike Ratledge]

Never seen the Aussie deck but made under license from USPC or packaged to look Australian is a possibility. Date looks like 1910-20 - my guess. The Arpak relatively common - maybe $30 mint would be maximum value.

I have another Royal Hawaiian deck pair (one open, one mint/sealed) that's made in Australia. I'll have to hunt it up. As I noted yesterday everything is in a state of Flux.

I have three of the Arpak No Revoke decks, in various conditions. Two are very similar, only one red, one blue. The third has a different back I've never seen before and isn't still sealed but has the overwrap still in the box, close to Excellent - considering it's nearing 90. I think I have a oix:

[Cryptocard27]

This is probably half of my (entire!) collection.  I realize you can't see much in these photos, but I plan to feature some of my better decks with individual posts in the future.  If you see any decks you want more info on, let me know.

Hi athomas16,

Would it be possible to have a scan of the deck inside the red Russell & Morgan box please?

[Mike Ratledge]

This is probably half of my (entire!) collection.  I realize you can't see much in these photos, but I plan to feature some of my better decks with individual posts in the future.  If you see any decks you want more info on, let me know.

Hi athomas16,

Would it be possible to have a scan of the deck inside the red Russell & Morgan box please?

That's bound to be an Army 303 or Navy 303 deck, just look for "Army 303" or "Navy 303" (actually, there is also an "Army / Navy 303" set (pair).  They used it again in 1985 for the 100th anniversary reprints that were never for sale publicly, but have slipped out anyway.  I think I still have 5 of those sets left, after I sold one to a friend here. (and no, not for sale, folks! - unless you're willing to entertain a price of $120, they 'list' for $50+$50 as of the Hochman's Supplement and Pricing Guide published 10 years ago, now.  I can't see that they are any less rare now than they were 10+ years ago.  I suppose I could sell one - maybe.  I've posted pictures of the exact thing before, so I won't post another pix.  It comes in a leather(ette?) presentation case with both decks wrapped in a thick "onion-skin" type paper with a fold-over presentation card with the "100th Anniversary" details on it.

[52plusjoker]

This is probably half of my (entire!) collection.  I realize you can't see much in these photos, but I plan to feature some of my better decks with individual posts in the future.  If you see any decks you want more info on, let me know.

Hi athomas16,

Would it be possible to have a scan of the deck inside the red Russell & Morgan box please?

That's bound to be an Army 303 or Navy 303 deck, just look for "Army 303" or "Navy 303" (actually, there is also an "Army / Navy 303" set (pair).  They used it again in 1985 for the 100th anniversary reprints that were never for sale publicly, but have slipped out anyway.  I think I still have 5 of those sets left, after I sold one to a friend here. (and no, not for sale, folks! - unless you're willing to entertain a price of $120, they 'list' for $50+$50 as of the Hochman's Supplement and Pricing Guide published 10 years ago, now.  I can't see that they are any less rare now than they were 10+ years ago.  I suppose I could sell one - maybe.  I've posted pictures of the exact thing before, so I won't post another pix.  It comes in a leather(ette?) presentation case with both decks wrapped in a thick "onion-skin" type paper with a fold-over presentation card with the "100th Anniversary" details on it.

Sorry Mike, not quite right - the box is a generic one used for many brands in the early days - for example Army, Navy, Cabinet, Congress, etc. In my experience Navy is BLUE and Army is RED. They also came in green, orange, black and perhaps other colors. For example I have the first Texan [US13] in this same red box.

[Mike Ratledge]

This is probably half of my (entire!) collection.  I realize you can't see much in these photos, but I plan to feature some of my better decks with individual posts in the future.  If you see any decks you want more info on, let me know.

Hi athomas16,

Would it be possible to have a scan of the deck inside the red Russell & Morgan box please?

That's bound to be an Army 303 or Navy 303 deck, just look for "Army 303" or "Navy 303" (actually, there is also an "Army / Navy 303" set (pair).  They used it again in 1985 for the 100th anniversary reprints that were never for sale publicly, but have slipped out anyway.  I think I still have 5 of those sets left, after I sold one to a friend here. (and no, not for sale, folks! - unless you're willing to entertain a price of $120, they 'list' for $50+$50 as of the Hochman's Supplement and Pricing Guide published 10 years ago, now.  I can't see that they are any less rare now than they were 10+ years ago.  I suppose I could sell one - maybe.  I've posted pictures of the exact thing before, so I won't post another pix.  It comes in a leather(ette?) presentation case with both decks wrapped in a thick "onion-skin" type paper with a fold-over presentation card with the "100th Anniversary" details on it.

Sorry Mike, not quite right - the box is a generic one used for many brands in the early days - for example Army, Navy, Cabinet, Congress, etc. In my experience Navy is BLUE and Army is RED. They also came in green, orange, black and perhaps other colors. For example I have the first Texan [US13] in this same red box.

Yes, Tom - I just remembered Navy being - well, Navy - and Arny being Red.  I'm not aware of the others, typically the OB's are hard to come by for the 1880's and 1890's decks.  I have a few, very few, mostly good decks in excellent condition, but those are often missing the Joker or the OB.  It's just human nature, lots of people discarded the jokers early on.  The boxes generally weren't that high of quality, especially finding something like a Tiger 101 in good condition is an exceptionally rare find, even if the deck is in next-to-perfect condition.

[52plusjoker]

Speaking of Tigers: Here's a rare one - only Tigers we have ever seen with this Ace & Joker [Hochman US1a]. We'd be most interested if anyone else has seen one.

[Mike Ratledge]

Sweet combination, Tom!  Can't say that I've seen that colored joker in a US1 deck before, frankly.  Is the AoS unique as well?  It looks familiar?  Is it used in another deck, perhaps?  I'm on the phone right now or I'd grab my Hochman's and look.

[52plusjoker]

Sweet combination, Tom!  Can't say that I've seen that colored joker in a US1 deck before, frankly.  Is the AoS unique as well?  It looks familiar?  Is it used in another deck, perhaps?  I'm on the phone right now or I'd grab my Hochman's and look.

Both go together in this unique deck - US1a when you get off the phone!

[Slowhand]

Great deck T.!.. I love the finely engraved Ace of Spades... here's another "Moldy Oldy" for anybody's enjoyment.. that the original box has survived is amazing...

[Mike Ratledge]

Great deck T.!.. I love the finely engraved Ace of Spades... here's another "Moldy Oldy" for anybody's enjoyment.. that the original box has survived is amazing...

A great example, thanks!  I have looked for one of the Tigers 101 decks with OB for a while, even one with a marginal box including the joker, and they are just too hard to find any more.  I suppose that most people that want them have them, and they certainly aren't offered for sale very often.  I look forward to seeing what's offered during the convention in October (Wednesday the 15th to Saturday the 18th) here in my hometown of Charleston when we're holding the 52+J annual convention.  They (both this one and Tom's example) show how hard it is to find one with even close to perfect registration between the colors, even when there was basically only red, black and yellow.  These days we take such things for granted, but back in the late 1800's and early 1900's those Tigers 101 decks are about as good an example as one might find for the lowest end of the price-range that was produced.

[Cryptocard27]

Speaking of Tigers: Here's a rare one - only Tigers we have ever seen with this Ace & Joker [Hochman US1a]. We'd be most interested if anyone else has seen one.

Nice deck Tom and very pleased to see a copy outside the encyclopedia! I think this ace is the most beautiful of all the Tigers #101 issues, even if, paradoxically, I love the joker of the US1.
Another US1/US1a version was recently sold on eBay but really has no the same freshness as yours, largely because of the condition but also because of the different Ace & Joker combination used in my view.