Introduction to collecting Playing Cards.

Swap cards are mostly from a deck of normal playing cards. Collectors take one of each design or pattern from the deck for their collection. Usually there are a pair, but sometimes there may be four decks in a box, with different colours or pictures in each deck. Sometimes there is no 'pair' for a card, if just one pack was produced by the manufacturer, using the same pattern for the entire deck of cards. (Swap cards were also produced by Coles and Woolworths in the 1950's. These are now rare, and highly valued among collectors.)

A matching pair of cards can be the same design with variations in colour, or different pictures with the same kind of border to show they are a pair. There may even be four varieties of the one pattern in different colours. The subjects on the front of cards are endless. Some collectors only save a certain topic, such as animals, or just one kind of animal. Old fashioned or vintage-style pictures such as crinoline ladies and Old Masters paintings are popular. Other collectors specialise in Jokers or Aces.

In 1956, Coles Stores produced four separate sets of cards to commemorate the Olympic Games in Melbourne. There are 28 cards in each set, with flags of the competing nations, flora, fauna, industry, and sporting events pictured on them.

Saturday, 28 September 2013

Australian Coles cards. 1956 Olympic Games

Here is the first lot of my Coles collection - the cards brought out to commemorate the 1956 Olympic Games in Melbourne. Sorry the images are crammed so close together. It took me ages to photograph the pages, then when I got them onto the hard drive I discovered I had the camera on the wrong setting and the pictures were too big. So I had to reduce each one manually, and then when I posted them here I selected another wrong format so all the photos ran in together - grrrr! If you click on them it will bring the picture closer/make it larger for you to see. I'll see if I can improve on this with the next lot. I've photographed everything in the album but there is too much to post all in one hit, so I'll put some more up in a day or so.
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7 comments:

Gina E. said...
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9 October 2013 at 23:38
Anonymous said...
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25 January 2014 at 23:36
Gina E. said...
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30 January 2014 at 02:31
Gina E. said...
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11 February 2014 at 01:55
Lilac said...

Just found your blog. I've been recently collecting, and trying to find the same ones I originally had. Are you still blogging about swap cards?

23 June 2014 at 12:09
Gina E. said...

Lilac, if you are still around, sorry I didn't see your comment until now. I've asked several times if anybody is reading it and when I don't get a comment, I announce that I'm deleting it, and immediately get half a dozen people protesting! So I'm not going to close it down but I just don't have time to do any more blogging, so they will all sit here until Blogspot deleteds them in time to come, I suppose.

23 September 2014 at 00:42
Margaret TM said...

Hi! WONDERFUL to see some of your collection. How many Coles cards of dolls were there? Do you know what they are? Thanks. Margaret

5 October 2023 at 08:46

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