General Information
How to Research Playing Cards
Researching playing cards is a crucial part of collecting them. The main things you are looking for are the Age and the Brand. Like researching anything else, there is no one true solution to finding the answer you’re looking for. But, here are a couple tips I’ve used in my own research.
Inspect Your Deck Thoroughly
The last thing you want to happen is that you spend days researching a deck, to find that the brand and date were right on the deck. Most modern decks will have the copywrite date on the deck. Most decks, old and modern, will have the brand on the Ace of Spades or the Joker. Some brands will also have a manufacturing code specific to that brand. If you can decipher that code, it can usually tell you the date. The only brand manufacturing codes I know of that have been deciphered are USPCC and Piatnik. You can find more information on their manufacturing codes in the Brands section of this website.
Finding The Brand
The brand of a deck can be found in many places within the deck including the Ace of Spades, Joker, and the Box. However, to find the Brand that owns that Brand, you might have to do more research. Sometimes you can find it on the Ace of Spades or the Box. You can find information on Brand Ownership in the Brands section of this page.
Finding The Date
Finding the date of a deck isn’t always about finding the date this deck was manufactured. Most of the time, it’s about finding any date or range of dates that the deck existed. This can be done a couple different ways, but it’s usually a combination of several methods.
Finding The Date Using The Brand
By researching the history of the brand that made the deck, you can find a lot of helpful details to narrow down the range of dates. Here are a couple things to look for in their history that will give you a range of dates:
- When the company was created.
- Some companies own multiple brands of playing cards, so you can find when that brand was created.
- If the company didn’t start making playing cards until a certain date.
- If the company stopped making playing cards at a certain date.
- If a brand was discontinued by the company.
- If a company or brand went out of business.
- If the company or brand changed their printing techniques. This can be hard to spot if you are not familiar with printing techniques.
- If a company or brand is bought by another company, the packaging or design will usually change to show the new company.
- Company patents, trademarks or copyrights for a brand or design. Google Patents is great for researching historical patents.
Finding The Date Using The Topic
A lot of decks were produced for another company, to advertise a product or promote tourism. These decks can be especially hard to research, because most modern ones are mass-produced in Hong Kong. Some older advertising and tourism decks might be made by well-known brands like Brown & Bigleow, or Gemaco. Those decks can also be researched using the Brand tips listed above. Here are some tips for researching decks using the topic.
Advertising Decks:
- When the product or company being advertised was created.
- If the product was discontinued, or the company no longer offers a service advertised on your deck.
- If the product was redesigned, or updated.
- If the company went out of business.
- If the company changed their name or ownership.
- Most advertising decks will have an address for the company, so you can find out when the company had that address, or if they changed addresses.
- Some advertising decks will feature a slogan from the company, so you can try to find their history of slogans.
- Some advertising decks were released as part of an event or advertising campaign, so you can try to find when that advertising campaign began and ended.
Tourism Decks:
- If the deck was made by a tourism company, you can research the history of that company.
- If the tourism company no longer offers trips to that place or advertises for that place.
- If the deck was only sold at a certain giftshop, you can research that giftshop.
- If the deck features specific towns or landmarks in that place, you can research the history of those places.
- Some tourism decks will feature a slogan from the tourism company, so you can research the company’s slogan history.
- Some tourism decks were released as part of an event or advertising campaign, so you can try to find when that advertising campaign began and ended.
- If the deck was made for a specific landmark, you can research that landmark.
- If the landmark was updated, redesigned or decommissioned.
- If the giftshop the deck was made for moved to a different address.
