Hello everyone, i'd like to write an informative article about playing cards (mainly referring to the USPCC) and I'd love to have some informations.
The first question is about embossing: i've heard that the writings on the box (air cushion, linoid, linen, etc.) are not referring to the actual finish, no longer in use since some decades. I'd like to know if i am correct, and the USPCC applies the same embossing that simulates a pattern for all the cards.
The second question is about stock: the main difference is about retail and casino stock, but i am assuming that refers to the paper itself, for example can i use a particular paper stock if i can afford it? That would influence the cards "feel"?
If I'm asking something that is too technical let me know, maybe i hope i can drop a mail to the USPCC to get some informations about it.
The main reason that i'm asking this is because of common misconceptions regarding card "quality" while the main factor when it comes to buying a deck of cards are in my opinion aesthetics and how the performer handle the cards, and very little is left to manufacturing processes that are about standard.
Thank You for Your help,
Marco
I'm pretty late to the party on this one, but I'll give it a whack.
Modern-day USPC decks don't have a great deal of variety in terms of actual finishes, though they still use a lot of their old trademarked names for them. Bear in mind you need to understand the definition of a finish - it's the TEXTURE of the card, not the COATING on the card's surface. Basically, for finish, you have smooth and embossed - that's it. Nothing else.
Where do all the names come from? At one time in history, a card's finish was created by applying a coating on the card using a cloth roller brush. The different cloths used - linen, cambric, etc. - were where some of the names were derived from. But sometime in the 1970s or so, USPC switched to a manufacturing process where the finish was created by pressing a dimpled steel roller into the paper (embossed) or not (smooth). "Air Cushion" finish was called such simply because the dimples in the paper (whether pressed into it with steel rollers or applied in the coating with a cloth brush) created an actual cushion of air around the card, in the same manner how the dimples in a golf ball allow it to travel further than a smooth ball of the same size and weight launched in the same direction with the same force.
Here's where things get complicated a little - USPC offers two different coatings. One is standard. One is called "Magic Finish." Technically, it's NOT a finish, it's a coating. But they use that name anyway for marketing purposes. Magic Finish has a slightly more slippery feel to it, so cards slide against each other more easily. It's been marketed under a variety of names, including "Performance Coating," "Performance Finish," "Premium Finish" and even "Air Cushion Finish." But it's most commonly called "Magic Finish" and has a certain amount of name-brand recognition among card collectors.
Some collectors complain about "plastic coating." It's kind of funny - most coatings, until around 2009-2010, were made of some kind of plastic. So any coating could have been called "plastic coating." Cheap card manufacturers tried using that term to make their decks seem better than uncoated cards, but because they were cheaply made with cheap paper and cheap coatings, it became more of a derogative term than a complimentary one to describe a deck. I did mention 2009-2010, right? That's around the time that legislation in the US kicked in forcing US playing card manufacturers (of which USPC is about 90% of the market if not more) to switch to using papers with higher post-consumer recycled content as well as inks and coatings that contained no petroleum products for improved recyclability. USPC presently uses starch-based coatings and vegetable-based ink dyes.
As far as stock - it's variable. As I mentioned about recycled paper, USPC is forced to use more post-consumer recycled content in their paper. This means fewer long fibers, thus inferior paper when compared with older stocks. To further complicate matters, they don't actually make their own paper - they buy it from paper mills. They use the paper to create the pasteboard that becomes their card stocks, but the paper itself they have little control over in terms of just how good every little square inch of it is. They do what they can with what they have, and by and large, they're not doing too bad.
For custom print runs, USPC offers three stocks now. For a long time, there was only two - Bicycle Standard stock and Bee Casino stock. They introduced something called "Thin-Crush" stock, which is supposed to be a thinly-crushed pasteboard that retains high durability. But the paper used to make all three stocks is exactly the same - it's all in how the paper is glued together to make the stock.
Pasteboard is two layers of paper with a layer of glue in-between, to give it a degree of stiffness while still retaining some flexibility. In addition, the glue is usually laced with an additive (in the case of USPC, graphite) to make the end-result stock more opaque - you wouldn't want your opponent at the poker table to be able to read your cards through the light of the table lamp behind you, right? The pressure applied by the rollers and the gap between the rollers when creating this "paper sandwich" is what determines the thickness and stiffness of the pasteboard stock that results. Bee Casino is somewhat thicker than Bicycle in general and is generally stiffer. I haven't sampled the new Thin-Crush paper yet, but if I had to guess, I'd say that USPC was trying to develop a stock that's got the firmness of a Bee Casino with the thinness of a Bicycle Standard if not thinner. I'll have to wait for people who own this paper to chime in for their evaluations of the stuff.
That's pretty much it in a nutshell. USPC tends to really guard a lot of the information about their papers/stocks/finishes/coatings, so you probably didn't get very far with any direct inquiries. If you did, though, please - SHARE!
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