Mah Jongg Cards:

"Mah Jong playing cards" Happiness, 148c. 

麻雀纸牌, 囍, 148 副

The present deck of cards is a deck of cards for playing the game of Mahjong. Cards of this make have evidently been around for a long time,  This post by the knowledgable Tom Sloper https://www.sloperama.com/mjfaq/cards.htm - perhaps well over a decade old now- shows decks of Mahjong Cards that are very similar in design to this present deck. The present dc

Decks of mahjong playing cards have been featured previously in this blog. (See This, This, This ). In any case the deck featured here seems pretty rare now; Most decks are of the wider, 'poker' format that the previously featured decks belong to. 

The Suit of Coins. The Maker's Name (happiness)囍  is found in the middle of each card

As you can see, the cards here resemble physical mahjong tiles,  One unique feature of these cards is the use of Arabic numbers in the indices. This feature is never found in actual mahjong tilesets, save those intended for export. We presume these cards were also made for export too. 

The Suit of bamboos 

In the above-mentioned post by Tom Sloper, he advises people to purchase several decks of cards, as they are inevitably misprinted. This does not appear to be true any more. Aside from the odd smudge, the cards are well-printed on nice smooth cardboard. The problems of length and misalignment are no longer evident. 

The Suit of Myriads. 

Nonetheless, these Cards, or Kards (as Sloper calls them to avoid confusion with a piece of equipment used in the American game of mahjong) are still fairly cheap.  The author purchased a ten such decks for 20 Chinese Yuan, which in 2020 is about 2USD. Evidently Mr. Sloper's supplier was making a huge profit off these decks. 

The 'Honours'.  The Three cards on the left are what are called in the west the "Dragons". Rather curiously their indices do not display the conventional western names of as Red, White and Green dragon (Left to right) , but rather romanisations of their Chinese names, viz:

中 = Chung (now usually spelt Zhong)
白= Pai (Now usually spelt Bai)
發 = Fa  (Still spelt Fa)

Even more interestingly, the four 'wind' cards ( the group in the middle,)are annotated in english, to whit, North, South, East and West. The card labelled "K" is a Joker; The Chinese character 皇 on it signifies "Emperor" or "King", hence the index. 

The flowers

Readers should note that despite having 148 cards, the present deck cannot be used to play Singaporean/Malaysian -style Mahjong. The Singaporean deck has 12 flowers instead of the 8 here; The extra 4 depict a cat, a rat, a chicken and a centipede respectively. 

The Box

二八杠 Two-Eight Gang

This is a simple Chinese game. Its name is Er Ba Gang-- Two-Eight Gang. [[ It is sometimes known as Kuangfeng Paijiu 瘋狂牌九 -- Crazy Pai gow or Tui Tongzi 推筒子-- Pushing "Coins" ( as in the suit of mahjong)

Descriptions are sketchy, but the game is simple enough to reconstruct. My primary source is the Chinese Baidu article An article which describes a similar game, Er-Ba-Gang has also proved invaluable

Equipment: All the tiles from the  suit of "Coins" from a mahjong deck, plus the four white Dragons.  The complete "deck" thus contains 40 tiles.
Makers of mahjong equipment sell sets of majhong tiles that are of the above composition.
  If you do not have such a deck, you can make one using western playing cards. Take the ranks of Ace-Nine in all four suits, then add the four jacks to represent the white Dragons

  A pair of dice is also needed, to determine the deal, as described below.

Players
Players compete against a banker. The sources state either two or three players against a banker.

Staking
Players stake money into a pool. Spectators can evidently bet on the game as well.

Deal
Two cards are dealt at a time. The first The baidu article describes how this is done.  The banker throws two dice. He inspects the number they produce.
The banker deals the first pair to himself if the dice produce 5 or  9
The banker deals the first pair to himself  Player  1 if the dice produce   2, 6, 10
The banker deals the first pair to himself  Player  2 if the dice produce 2 3, 7, 11
The banker deals the first pair to himself  Player  3 if the dice produce 3 4, 8, 12

Play
Players expose their tiles.  They compare it with the banker. If their hand is greater than the banker's (as determined below) they win . The converse is true, If they tie [...]

Scoring 

In summary, the rule is as follows
1. Pairs outrank all hands. A pair of White dragons ( B)  is the highest, followed by the numbers, in descending numerical order.

2. When a hand is not a pair, its value is dictated by the sum of its components, modulo 10 The white dragon counts as zero. Thus, a hand of 8,9 Scores Seven, and a hand of 7,3 counts as Zero.

3. With hands that are of the same sum, the highest ranked hand is the Natural number plus a white dragon. So between 5,B and 3,2 the 5,B wins.

4.When white dragons are not involved, the hand that contains the higher card wins. So between the hands 9,6 and 2,3 (both hands score 5) the former wins

The Chinese sources provide a scoring chart, listing the ranks of all 81 possible hands.


Notes

It appears that this game may be played with Chinese Dominoes. The game also bears similarities to Koo Kiew and Daun Tiga. 

Joss paper Mahjong

華雅麻將, 144c.
Haoya Majiang ("Luxurious Mahjong")144c.

Now, a set of playing-cards with a difference. This is a mahjong set, purchased in 2018 in Singapore. However, The author remembers such sets being produced around the year 2014, which he subsequently lost.

 Unlike most mahjong sets, this is not intended for the living. It is rather intended for the dead. This majhong set is an example of "Joss paper", paper objects intended to be burnt as offerings to the ancestors and spirits.

Effort has not been spared in the production of such an ephemeral set. Each "tile" is a small box made of folded card. Becuase they are made of printed paper,  the manufacturer can be more creative in designing the tiles.

There are 144 tiles in total, but their distrubution is extremely erratic. A standard set of mahjong tiles has exactly 4 copies of each tile, but in this set, some tiles can have as few as 2 copies and others as many as 6. The exact distribution is as follows:

Rank Suit	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9
萬 Myriads	3	6	2	2	4	5	7	4	2
竹 Bamboos	2	5	7	3	4	5	5	2	2
筒 Coins	6	6	4	3	3	3	5	3	4
Other cards
中· Red Dragon	白 White Dragon	發 Green Dragon	東 East	南 South	西 West	北 North	花 Flowers
2	9	5	3	4	3	3	8

The Suit of coins. From Right to left, the 1-9 of coins . The furthest tile on the left is the 白板, Bai ban ( lit "White board")  conventionally known as the White dragon in English. 

 Because the tiles are small boxes of printed paper, the manufacturer can make them much fancier than the ordinary sort. Note the small coloured border surrounding each of the tiles-- Engraving such a border on each tile would be prohibitively expensive. 

The Suit of Bamboos. From Right to left, the 1-9 of bamboos. The 1 of bamboos is a bird.  The furthest tile on the left is the 红中 , Hong Zhong, Literally Red Center, conventionally known as the Red dragon in English. 

The 1 of bamboos is depicted as a scarlet Macaw. Compare this with the much more stylized versions found Here and here and Here. Apart from that, the bamboos look much like those on convntional decks

 The Suit of Myriads. From Right to left, the 1-9 of myriads  
The furthest tile on the left is the 青發, Qing fa, Literally Green prosperity, conventionally known as the green dragon in English. 

Top Row: Flowers (1) : L-R Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter

Middle row - Flowers (2) -- L-R Plum, Orchid, Chrysanthemum, and bamboo

Bottom row: The Winds - L-R East, South, West, North

Most Mahjong sets contain 'Flowers" These are extra tiles, which act as bonuses.The medium of printing offers a further opportunity for elaboration, with gaudy stockart replacing the stylized flowers of ordinary sets. 

Note the fancy rainbow effect on the winds. (bottom row). Most sets of mahjong cards (intended for actual use as opposed to an offering) follow the tiles very closely, even though (as we can see here) it is easy for fancy effects to be made in printing. Perhaps because it is precisely because it is an offering, that the makers can get away with making it so gaudy. 

The above two images show the box the tiles come in , with and without the lid. Like the tiles themselves, the box is made of paper, and intended to be burnt along with the tiles. 

The manufacturer has also provides some paper jetons and a wind indicator, along with a pair of dice (also of paper).

In addition to the mahjong set, a box of playing-cards is provided for the added amusement of the spirits. Alas, the box is empty, and contains no cards. 

From the side, it is easy to see how the tiles are constructed-- Small boxes of paper. You can also see the yellow-coloured backs of the tiles. Prior to the invention of plastic, majhong tiles were made of bone laminated to bamboo. The yellow colour represents the bamboo. Plastic tiles also have this feature-- their backs are of a different colour than their faces. 

Rummy Tiles

[Rummy Tiles] 104+8 C, Singapore.

In Singapore, mahjong shops sell a kind of gaming-tile. The tiles are called 'Rummy', after the game that they are used to play. However, these cards are quite different from the Rummy tiles that are commonly known in the West.These tiles are in effect a pair of International pattern decks that have been transferred into tiles.

The cards have been fairly faithfully transferred. The pips are fully represented on each card, which have an index in two corners to assist the player. The Double-ended courts are also rendered in detail, with the appropriate index attached to each rank. The ace of Spades is also enlarged, agreeing to custom. 

But the most striking feature of the cards is their colour. Each suit is assigned a colour. Spades are black, Hearts are Red, Clubs are Green and Diamonds are yellow. The tiles are so small [ Around 3.5 by 2.8 cm], the risk of confusion between suits would be higher if only two colours were used. 

Knowledgeable readers might recognize these as the four colours of the German Turnierbild decks, save that clubs and Spades have swapped colours.

Through the four suits, the courts possess an identical design. They are differentiated only by the suit symbol, and the colour of the frame that surrounds the courts.  

The King is clearly inspired by the King of Diamonds in a standard deck. The Jack and Queen are less certain. The Queen might be inspired by Possibly the Q. of Diamonds or Clubs. 

The Suit of Diamonds. The attention to detail in the courts is formidable. The maker has taken care to give the faces and bodies of the courts different colours. 

The Joker depicts the head of a clown. There are Eight jokers in this set, corresponding to four in each deck. 

The tiles are relatively thick, as seen in the picture. 

Their backs are "Plain".By contrast, Most kinds of mahjong Tiles sold have a layer of different-coloured plastic attached to their backs. 

The tiles in their carrying-case. Such cases are also used to store mahjong tiles. The case is made of leather-like plastic. Within this case are stored four smaller "trays" that make the tiles easier to bring out of the case. In between them is an oblong tray, which would be usually filled with jetons. This set lacks the jetons. 

 Note the Eight blank tiles in the left-hand side of the case. These are spares, If a tile is lost, this blank tile can be sent to an engraver to be engraved with a replacement. 

"Chik Kee cards"

"Chik Kee cards", 金星/Gold star , 159c,
( N.B: New edit as of 20th October 2017)
This deck of cards was found in an old shop in Singapore. It had probably laid there for several decades undisturbed, as the shop transformed from what was probably a general store to a dedicated lottery shop. When I spotted it, its fragile cellophane wrapper was nearly falling apart, and the edges of the cards brown. I gladly paid for it, even though shopkeeper inflated its price by several dollars.

This card is one of an extremely rare species of "money suited " cards. They apparently were once very common, but now have disappeared. The suit system is familiar to any player of mahjong. such cards have three suits, viz; coins, bamboos, (or in this case, strings of coins) , and myriads or wan. Within each suit are nine ranks. In addition to these three basic suits, these cards typically include a set of extra cards, usually three or four in number.

This particular example is rather extraordinary, for two reasons. First, it incorporates colour in its designs. Second, its ranks structure is very unusual.

Most decks of money-suited cards have four copies of each card. This particular deck has five copies of each card. ( embarrassingly , this fact escaped me for over a year!). The distribution of cards is as follows:

Suit	Ranks inside suit	Number of cards
Coins	Ace to Nine, 5 copies of each	45
Strings	Ace to Nine, 5 copies of each	45
Myriads	Ace to Nine, 5 copies of each	45
Odd cards	千, nine copies	9
	老道 5 copies	5
	白花 5 copies	5
	金玉 5 copies	5
TOTAL		159

Here you see the suits of coins( top row) and myriads ( bottom row). 

Note the ornately decorated ace of coins ( top row, 1st from right), and the small blossom on the seven of coins (Top row, 3rd from left)

The suit of myriads contains almost cartoon-like depictions of human figures. The Chinese inscription above each card shows its rank. The Nine of myirads ( Bottom row, 1st from left) shows a man holding a flag with the character 令-- A Military commander?  The five of Myriads ( Bottom row, 5th from left) shows a man holding an axe standing beside a child. 

 For some reason, the captions of the 2. 3,4 and 7 are white on black, while the rest are black on white. Whatever significance this may have, I do not know. 

 The one, five, and nine are coloured in. This might have a role in the games played. 

The suits of strings ( top row) and the bonus cards). The strings in question refer to the ancient Chinese practice of stringing together large quantities of coins by their central holes. As before, the ranks are from one to nine. The one of the suit is coloured. The nine of the suit has a bold red overprint, showing the Chinese character for nine. 

The extra cards are on the bottom row. Translations of the inscriptions:

A: White flower

B: Golden Jade

C: Old Tao ( Perhaps a scholar or a Taoist priest-magician?)

D Thousand 

E: The back of the cards. Worthy of op art. 

It should be noted that the cards have a  form of indices. The black rectangle on the top and bottom of the cards displays the suit, and rank of the card in question. You can see it in the following table:

The rank is marked by means of a simple geometric shape. For example, the twos have a small circle; the fives two small circles, and sixes have a pair of white rectangles.

The suit is represented by the presence of a semicircle. The suit of coins has no semicircle. The suit of strings has the semicircle on the bottom of the rectangle. The suit of myriads has the semicircle on the top of the rectangle. 

The pack also includes a quality control certificate Although its inscription is much faded, I reproduce it below, with a translation. 

If any reader can provide a better translation, I am happy to receive it.

Mahjong- Hanayama

"カード麻雀"(Mahjong)- Hanayama, 139 + 4 C.

The Japanese game of mahjong differs slightly from the versions played in China, HK, and elsewhere. For starters, the game uses only 136 tiles, instead of the 144 or more used elsewhere. These variations are reflected in a pretty little set from that country.
 The set presented below is a complete fac-similie of a japanese mahjong set, reproduced on paper. The cards here are closer to the size of mahjong tiles than normal playing cards ( they are only 3 x 5 cm ), and as a result, the set also comes with four card "racks",  on which the cards may be held in the game

Besides, the basic structure of the deck is more or less similar to the other examples shown elsewhere on this site ( compare http://anthonylesq.blogspot.sg/2012/09/mahjong-ii-kr-brand.html)

The suit of coins.

Note the miniature depeictions of the cards used as indices placed in the corners of the cards.  Also note that colour black, or rather, a very dark indigo blue, replaces the brilliant blue of other sets

The suit of bamboos-

Note the one of bamboos ( 1st row, 1st from left) The bird depicted here is much more complex than that of the previous examples, resembling a peacock, rather than an abstract jumble of lines resempling a parrot

the suit of 萬

Again, not much removed from the other examples shown

~Other cards, and the back design~

The Dragons  ( A ) dislpay small variants from the chinese. For starters, the "發" is written somewhat differntly from the chinese. Secondly, the "白板" here is completely blank, without the "frame" in other examples. However, the makers printed, in a very faint grey , the word 白 on the card ( barely visible in the above img. ), perhaps to prevent it from being mistaken for a spare card. 

The Winds ( B) are relatively unexcaptional.

  Here is where the differences between Japanese mahjong and the Chinese versions become apparent. Firstly, There are no flowers, as the japanese game usually does not use them. However, in some variants, three cards, known as "red fives" are used. ( C) . They function as special bonuses.

as for D, I know not what it does ( any Trasnlation appreceated) , and E is a yakitori marker- A piece of scoring appartus used in the game.



Mahjong - III - "游の屋"

Mahjong- 144c. "游の屋"

 We have a rather curious case here. Aldough the cards to all appearences the cards look chinese, the name of the maker contains  "の"- a japanese word, meaning "of". However, it is known that in taiwan, this character is sometimes used to replace 的, having an identical meaning, to give the brand a more exotic feel. Hence, if I did not err in the transcription, the maker's name is "house of games"
Another curious feature is the colour scheme. This deck replaces blue with black, and the 2s, 3s and 5s of coins are only printed in either red or green, onitting black/blue entirely

                                                                             Coins.  

bamboos.

萬- wan or 10000s

The winds ( top, with "南"inverted) & dragons ( bottom) Again, black replaces blue

Some flowers. Note the different, more stylized carving