The Bicycle design on the back of playing cards dates back to roughly 1885 and the United States Playing Card Co. ... then known as Russell, Morgan & Co. Still located in Cincinnatti Ohio today, the then Russel Morgan was a printer of theatrical and circus posters, placards and labels beginning around 1860. In 1880 Mr. Russell convinced his partners to get into the card manufacturing busiiness. In 1891 Russell, Morgan & Co. became the United States Printing Co. and then shortly thereafter split off the playing card business, as a result of huge growth, as the United States Playing Card Co.

The early playing card back designs utilizing the image of a bicycle were of the 'high-wheeled' variety popular in the mid 19th century. The use of the bicycle initially is rumored to have been tied to the current popularity of the high-wheeled bicycles of the time ... a popular fad. Russell, Morgan & Co decided to 'ride' on the newfound popularity of the bicycle in the marketing of some of it's playing cards ... and the bicycle design in various forms has been in continuous production since.

The U.S. Playing Card Co. Bicycle Designs
The USPC designs alone vary greatly even within the Bicycle line itself. By 1881, the U.S. Playing Card Co. had six grades of cards ... and branded with a new naming convention ... one that represented the first departure from the traditional names that had been associated to the english and later the american cards for more than a 100 years. These new american names are: 101 Tigers ... 202 Sportsman's ... 303 Army and Navy ... 404 Congress ... 505 Army and Navy (gold edges) ... 606 Congress (gold edges). The common Bicycle brand of cards that most are familiar with here in the United States and elsewhere are actually the Poker 808 series. You can see this for yourself by looking at the bottom flap of the card box where the upc bar code is. Below are a few examples of these nostalgic designs that the U.S. Playing Card Co. has reprinted for regular use or collecting.

Thisle Back (1891 - 1934) The elves were taken from designs used by the New York Consolidated Co. that merged with the USPCC



Safety Back (1892 - 1941) The Safety Back features a bike with two equal size wheels, a signifigant change from the early High Wheel Back designs.



Cupid Back (1895 - 1943) Hand engraving by individual designers resulted in this card produced with lattice work between the wheels.



Tangent Back (1907 - 1939) The Tangent Back design was the first design to use 4 winged version of the American Wheelman Emblem in the center of the card.



New Fan Back (1894 - ?) The Fan Back design was originally created for standard playing cards in 1894. A variation was recently created on Canasta decks.




League Back (1893 - ?) This bicycle design first appeared in 1893 and sports a three pronged wing in the center w/ two large riderless bicycles. It's rumored to have been one of Larry Jenning's favorites. Close examination reveals a lack of symetry in the card.




Other Manufacturer's & Historical Card Designs
The long history of playing cards has yielded a wide range of card designs for both the backs of the cards and the faces. The early history left the backs blank in most cases but by mid 17th century pretty much all manuafacturers were using relatively plain, and often symetrical design patterns for their card backs. By the 19th century the card backs became important in promoting and distinguishing different card brands from each other. Card faces also saw a major change over the 600 year card history with a variety of suit systems that were often characteristic of the regions in which the cards were used. Below are some of the suits used in different regions of Europe.

Playing Card Suit Sytems

French/Anglo Heart Diamond Club Spade  German Heart Bell Leaf Acorn  Swiss Rose Bell Leaf Acorn  Spanish Cup Coin Club Sword  Italian Cup Coin Wand Sword  Tarot Cup Pentacle Wand Sword

Besides the many suit systems that were utilized in the early history of cards ... so too were the applications of cards. As is the case today ... cards aren't just for playing. Soon after the cards earliest appearances in Italy, France, Spain, and Germany these new oddities became commonly used for all sorts of things including honoring great leaders, representing satirical plays, detailing military campaigns, defining national geographic boundries, and even teaching future kings.









By the mid 18th century the vivid imagery characteristic on tarot cards were noticed by practictioners of alternative religious disciplines ... who began using these cards as parts of their ritualistic religious practices. It's believed that yet other's noticed these same allegorical themes and applied them to the archetypical issues of life by telling fortunes and doing readings for their subjects.



Once the playing card made it's way to the shores of America and their use became widespread the local manufacturing of the cards became common. This U.S. domestic production of cards is thought to go as far back as the mid 18th century. By the time of the writing of the Declaration of Independence there were over fourty (40) printing presses in the colonies. Although the paper used to create cards did not have widespread availability, within short order there were many producing cards w/ the key regions of card manufacturing being Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and later the Cinncinnati area.

There were many American manufacturers by the mid to late 19th century ... with the key manufacturers including the Lewis I Cohen companies, Andrew Dougherty, and the Longley Bros (Cinncinnatti). Their designs were rich and detailed showing a unique perspective characteristic of the time and the regions where they were produced.



Andrew Dougherty and the New York Consolidated Card Co. were competing with each other with their card designs and this rivalry over sales territory was reflected in the design shown below. Dougherty produced a line of indexed cards called 'Triplicate' and NY Consolidated had a product line known as Squeezers. This competitive rivalry was reflected in the card design of 1877 shown below. Note the names 'Squeezer' and 'Trip' on the collars of the dogs (if you're superman).



The Ace of Spades was often used as a means to reflect a uniqueness in a card manufacturers design and provided the easiest way to distinquish the maker of the cards. Company logos, unique design treatment of the Spade image itself, and explicit reference to the manufacturer and their location was common then as it is today. The Ace also often served as the card that contained the 'revenue stamp' indicating proper duty (tax) being paid for the cards.

Some other elements of card design in these early days can be seen below with these images:











The Many Uses of Playing Cards
Many cards over the 600 year western history have taken on some form of a theme. It's common for the cards to reflect the popular elements and activities of the time ... or to take on a regional personality and show the popular and cultural moires. Common themes included satires, biblical, historical, geographical, educational, and artistic.



Geography / History / Educational
In the early European history of cards the availability of books was limited ... both via the sheer access to them and the by the numbers of Europeans who could read. As time passed and playing cards became more popular it was common to see the cards used for other interesting applications other than just playing games of chance. As early as the 15th century there were cards being produced that provided useful information to those that used them. Cards outlining the geography of the local region, the history and major players in a given countries wars and conflicts, and information on other cultural norms were often depicted on the cards.














International
For those of us who live in the United States ... the United States Playing Card Co. is likely the most dominant player in the playing card business. Their wide array of card designs and applications seems to stretch endlessly ... with nearly every major production of a paper based playing card ultimately being sourced from this company. There are obviously other card manufacturers but the U.S. Playing Card Co. is the most dominant and recognizable. For the rest of the world ... they may have awawreness of this U.S. based company ... but there are a handful of European based manufacturers that also make a wide variety of playing cards for various applications. There's been a bit of consolidation in the card manufacturing business of late ... with the U.S. Playing Card Co. and other international card manufacturers now grouped under the umbrella of a single company. A few examples of the European card designs are shown below.









Advertising
Pretty much every pack of cards fits into the Advertising category at some level. The back designs on many cards are meant to become associated w/ a card brand ... one that you may recognize easily and favor ... for whatever reasons. The Ace of Spades and often the Joker in a deck will also contain some element that ties the card back to the source or the manufacturer. But the most dramatic examples of cards used for advertising are one's that we've all seen. Major brand logos adorning the backs of playing cards and often spilling onto the card faces is not uncommon. Below are some examples of these card uses.

















Casino
There's a wide variety of designs used by different casinos both in the US and around the world. These designs often serve many purposes. One objective is clearly to advertise the casino w/ it's brand ... which they hope is recognizable and memorable. Another reason is related to security w/ respect to whether or not a given card or cards are legitimately the casino's. The casino will pay careful atttention to all aspects of the cards they use ... from who and how they're manufactured ... shipped ... handled ... used in play ... and to how they're disposing of them. The source is key because they don't want just anyone ordering up fresh packs of Ceaser Palace cards and having any ability to alter them in advance ... then somehow slip them into play in this altered fasion. They dispose of them by cutting one corner or possibly punching a hole in the whole deck. These cards are then sold or given away as a novelty ... and provides their user's w/ a reminder of their last casino experience.





Wild Colors
In the beginning the colors were clearly limited. Block Printing would have been much simpler w/ a single color. Not far into card history stencilling techniques were developed that allowed complex color designs that often made court figures come to life. Today we have a wide range of bold colors that fill both the backs and the faces of the cards. You name the color and there's a card for your liking. See below for some of the more dramatic and brightest of cards.

























Custom Designs
This category has grown enormously in just the last few years. A new renaissance in magic in the last ten years or so has produced a growing group of card addicts that must have each and every new design in their hands. It appears as though this category is going to continue to expand w/ designs showing dark themes, antique themes, clean stylized themes, and whatever else suits the needs of the card officianado. Many of these new designs are being initiated by independent companies in the magic space contracting with the U.S. Playing Card Co. to have their unique designs produced on the Bicycle card stock. A handful of examples of these unique and custom designs are shown below.









Super Heros & Cartoon Characters
As you've seen with pretty much every other category ... the Cartoon category has the broad array of options for nearly every cartoon lover. Old standby's like Snoopy, Spiderman, and Scooby Doo are included in this group. A good way to get children acclamated to these layers of paper for the first time ... with recognizable characters that they can have fun with while learning new games. A few examples of the cartoon/super hero category are shown below.







Totally Unusual
If colors or education or gambling w/ casino cards aren't your thing then maybe a bit of the Totally Unusual will be to your liking. These things we call playing cards ... they've been around for quite a while now ... and they seem to be quite the center of focus for some ... me included. It's interesting to see the myriad of ways that they've been used to entertain, or inform, or in some cases corrupt. Here's few really strange examples of unusual card designs.





































Intersting Games w/ Cards
Just when you thought that the card was only good for playing the standard or historic playing card games, along comes applications of cards for all types of games. The standard use of cards is left behind here ... opening up the possibilities for new ways to use cards in competition, language, sports, educational themes, and strategy. Below are a few example of the application of playing cards for unique games.
















Most Wanted / Military
In the Spring of 2003 the United States military forces executed an invasion of Iraq to enforce United Nations Resolution 1441. As part of the effort to identify and capture the key Iraqi government officials ... the Army issued a variety of means for the soldiers on the ground to spot the key characters. The used posters, handbills, and a deck of 55 playing cards w/ the rankings of the cards denoting the importance of the Iraqi government official ... w/ Saddam as the Ace of Spades. All but about 10 of the 50+ people of interest on these cards either gave themself up in early stages of the invasion ... were taken into custody ... or killed. One of those still at large is shown below as the King of Clubs (Izzat Ibrahim al Duri).



The 2003 Iraq war was surely not the first time that playing cards were used in a wartime setting. In the Second World War special cards were made and provided to American prisoners of war that had a special surprise inside when they were soaked in water ... which produced maps of the region showing potential escape routes. Another application in the Second World War were what were called 'spotter cards' that showed images of military equipment like planes, tanks, and ships so that identification and discrimination of the enemy could be easily made.



In the Vietnam war the Ace of Spades was to believed to be a psychological tactic where American soldiers would leave an Ace of Spades behind w/ a Viet Cong casualty. As the story is told ... these aces were feared by the Viet Cong and may be tied to the use of cards in fortune telling by the French ... who had occupied Vietnam prior to the United States being involved (see the section titled Ace of Spades in the Cards section for more on this story).



So there it is ... an ever growing range of playing card designs that seem to touch all aspects of life and whatever the fancy of the card player might be. I know I don't have all the variations listed here ... but you can see from the diverse nature of their application that playing cards have been ... and will be ... purposed for all types of things.