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.

Thursday, 7 June 2007

Apologies for lack of posting!

As usual with me, I start things off in an explosion of enthusiasm, then I get sidetracked by other things happening in my life! I have had my card album sitting under the computer desk for months, meaning to do some more scanning, but time gets away. Maybe this coming weekend which is a long weekend here in Victoria, I will get the time to sit down and scan a whole lot of pages, and have them on my PC ready to post on this blog on a regular basis.

Fay asked how to tell the difference between Coles and Woolworths swap cards. Both brands had plain white backs, although some of the Coles cards had the Embassy brand printed on the back. Coles cards had many designs over the years, but Woolworths didn't have so many. The Woolworths cards also had a particular border around the picture on all their cards. The next lot of cards I scan will feature two of these cards, and I will point them out so you can see what this border is.
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1 comment:

Anonymous said...

You mean my scrap book collection and my bundle of cards with a rubber band around them are valuable??

10 May 2008 at 12:02

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