'Crown" playing cards

' Crown' playing cards. 52c+2

These cards were purchased in Singapore around 2010. They represent the extreme end of price in playing-card manufacture, each deck vending for $1.50 Singapore dollars. Despite ( Or because) of their low cost, they show some interesting features.
 First, they are made of plastic. Granted, this plastic very flimsy, and discolored, but the choice of material is not one would expect from cards thus cheap

The suits of Spades and clubs. The pattern is printed in three colours, for reasons of economy. Note the Queen of spades, whose printing is much lighter than the rest. The Joker is similar to the ones printed by Piatnik 

Hearts and Diamonds. Note the symbol on the K. of Diamond's breast. Might this be the maker's mark?

But, the real curiosity of these decks are their backs. They came in a bewildering variety of shades and varieties. Perhaps restricted by the convention of the faces, the printers decided to exercise their creativity on the other side of the cards. 

. Here are two eye-catching examples. The one on the right strikes me as an unusual choice of design for deck. 

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Two more examples. The one on the Left is quite literally a "Bicycle" deck. The one on the right was also printed in other colours.

"Black Jack 21"

"Black Jack 21", Wetecs Sdn Bhd, 52+4

This deck represents one of the delights of card-collecting. Finding the unusual in unexpected places.
For all appearances this deck is utterly unremarkable. It is, like many tens of thousands, nay, millions of decks that grace the shelves of small shops all across the world, It is that tried-and-tested double-faced 52-card Anglo-American pattern. However, it is certain small details that catch the eye, and make even the most humble deck stand out.

The spades and clubs. Note the crown, delicately rendered in colour pencils that graces the ace of spades. We are told that the cards are made by, a Malaysian company; Wetecs Sdn Bhd. 

The Diamonds and hearts. At this point I should note that the back is an imitation of USPCs famous "Aladdin" cards. 

However, it is the jokers that the real charm of the deck lies. Instead of the usual jesters, we have four droll caricatures of a criminal being stuck in various circumstances. They are delicately rendered in colour pencil. The artist has taken care to incorporate playing cards into each of the scenes. 

Such are the delights of card-collecting, The little gems in unexpected places. 

"500s", Queen's Slipper : International pattern XI

"500s", Queen's slipper. 62c+1

 The following deck is used to play the game of "500". Although once popular, it appears to have died out almost entirely except in Australia.  The present deck of cards is made by what appears to be the only maker of playing cards in Australia, Queen's slipper. It appears that cheap, imported cards of appallingly low quality are far more commonly available.

  The feature that makes this particular deck unique are the additional pip cards. In red suits, the pips run from ace to 13, and in black suits, from ace to 12.

The court cards of this deck are fairly typical of the Anglo-American pattern. However, the faces and hands of the figures are printed in a pink tone. This is a rare feature, but certainty not unheard of. The Joker in the deck depicts a bird grabbing a serpent. The design is different from the jokers used by the maker in their standard decks.  The black suits have an 2 additional ranks a 11 and a 12. 

Here you see the red suits. While each of the black suits have two extra ranks, the red suits have three extra ranks; 11, 12 and 13. 

Although these cards are quite frequently encountered, it appears that the game is almost never played with the extra cards. In any case, the 11s, 12s and 13s are only used in the 6-player version of the game. The more typical 4-player version requires only 45 cards (Omitting the 2s, 3s and a pair of 4s). 

Scenic aces 3- "Verona plastic coated speelkarten"

"Verona plastic coated speelkarten"- Anon, 52c + 3 jokers

If there is a deck of cards that can be called "international", this is it. Its courts are of the international, or Anglo-American pattern, but the indices are in Dutch. Likewise, the aces depict scenes from around the Netherlands.

It would be interesting to know what prompted the manufacturer of this deck to use the Anglo-American pattern for the courts whilst keeping the traditional scenic aces. Perhaps this was an exercise in economy ; The manufacturer could not get the plates for printing Dutch courts.