Odd Bee deck: About 1966.

[MrMollusk]

I hit a major score at a local thrift shop. A fairly old Bee deck.





It's weird, though. The box is red, but the cards that came inside are blue.  Here are some higher quality shots of the box.







The cards seem much older, though.

   

   



I looked up the code on the AoS. According to Don, the Consolidated Doughtery name was removed from the joker around 1962. So, going by this chart, that places the actual cards at 1946. (Seeing as the USPCC acquired C-D in 1930).

Not nearly as old as most of the decks here, but not bad for 75 cents!

(Sorry for the crazy number of pictures.  Just got a new camera.  )

[52plusjoker]

Assume it was unsealed when you got it? The Zip code and letter H in date code strongly indicate 1966 manufacture. The box is ok for that date I think. Often if plying Bridge, using two decks as is common, a red one could easily get put in a blue box and V.V.

[Don Boyer]

I hit a major score at a local thrift shop. A fairly old Bee deck.

It's weird, though. The box is red, but the cards that came inside are blue.  Here are some higher quality shots of the box.

The cards seem much older, though.

I looked up the code on the AoS. According to Don, the Consolidated Doughtery name was removed from the joker around 1962. So, going by this chart, that places the actual cards at 1946. (Seeing as the USPCC acquired C-D in 1930).

Not nearly as old as most of the decks here, but not bad for 75 cents!

(Sorry for the crazy number of pictures.  Just got a new camera.  )

The box isn't 1980s-ish, though.

This is on the "52 Problems" website about the company Andrew Doughtery.  The important part is in red.

Andrew Dougherty
* based in New York, NY (1848-1930)
* from 1907-1930, was a separate part of USPC
* in 1930, was merged into Consolidated Dougherty Co. (since 1962 operated as a division of USPC)

The odds of a box being 20 years younger than the deck in it are slim, even in a mismatch situation like this - the most likely possibility is that they're contemporary in age, within a year or two of each other at most.  The cards (just like the box) indicate that it's a division of USPC, meaning they're post-1962 - probably contemporary with the box, and probably 1966 rather than 1946.  The icing on that cake is that the box lacks a tax stamp, instead having a stamp-type manufacturer's deck seal.  i think stickers were in use by 1986, so 1966 is the most likely choice.

Please bear in mind that a lot of what I uncover about a deck is through deductive reasoning based on the information that I can find, especially about vintage decks.  I'm not infallible!  But I think this time around I got it on the spot.

[andrew daugherty]

Zip code on the jokers would indicate 1960s for the deck as well. 

[MrMollusk]

Thanks for the clarification, everyone! I'd change the thread title, but I have no idea how.

I figure that the USPCC switched to the newer seals sometime around '88. I have another deck of cards which dates back to 1988 (AoS code K3330), and it still has the older version of the seal.

[Don Boyer]

If you edit the title of the first post in a thread, you edit the thread's title as it will appear on the topic lists.

Zip code on the jokers would indicate 1960s for the deck as well.

Good catch - it's too easy to forget that the ZIP code for mail didn't exist prior to the 1960s.  I think it was in the late 1980s or early 1990s that ZIP+4 came into being but it's not very common yet, used mostly by businesses.