Making a tarot deck

A rather curious way of being able to produce a tarot deck without buying one is as follows.
 I quote the following instructions from the RationalWiki.

You will need two decks of 54 standard playing cards with identical backs and different faces; in the US, a Bicycle Standard or Jumbo Index deck and a Bicycle Lo-Vision four-color deck will do. (This example is based on that combination.)^[4]
Take the cards from the standard deck minus one joker (the other joker will be the Fool). Mix in the A->10 cards from the clubs (blue) and diamonds (green) from the Lo-Vision deck along with the Ace of Spades (black) and the jacks from all four suits; the clubs will be trumps 1-10, the diamonds (because a diamond's worth more than a stick) will be trumps 11-20, the big-index jacks will act as cavaliers,^[5] and the ace of spades will be trump 21. You are now ready to play any tarot game using a standard 78-card deck, and you won't have to frustrate yourself with the artsy-fartsy markings on a cartomancy deck or pay obscene shipping charges to import a playing deck from France or Italy
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4- Total cost approx. US$ 7, depending on supplier
5- You could also use three decks with three different index sizes, making the cavalier-jacks the middle-size index cards, but it's probably a waste of money to tear apart a third deck just for the jacks

http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Tarot#cite_ref-1

To sum it up, Here is a little table which breaks down the deck's structure
 ( the Letters in colour represent the cards of the Lo- vision deck, the "C" stands for a knight )

Tarot trump	Fool	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
Replacement	Joker	A	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
Tarot trump	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21
Replacement	A	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	A

....

Plain Suits (Tarot)	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	J	C	Q	K
Replacement	A	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	J Normal	J (Big in-dex)	Q	K

However, In this blogger's opinion, isn't part of the joy in playing at tarot the beauty of the cards?

[Edited 23rd Dec. 2018, to cure formatting error]

Transparent playing cards ( 1 )

Transparent playing cards- anon- 52 + 2 c.

Transparent playing cards would surely seem to be somewhat of an outright impossibility- How would one play with a deck that would allow light to pass through it, & yet conceal what cards you are holding from your opponents?
  However, such cards are made, and the are perfectly playable. However, it can be said that the makers almost always "cheat" when designing the cards. Firstly, to make them transparent, they ay are printed on thin sheets of plastic.

the cards overlaid on text , showing their transparent nature

As you may observe from the above image, only a certan portion of the cards are transparent, the rest covered with a form of design which is opaque. It is on this design where the face side of the cards are printed on. In this case, the maker has decided to only print the indexes of the cards and nothing else.

a closeup of the above. Note the ornamented borders and centerpiece.

the cards held up to strong light



the same, held up the other way. Note the opaque ovals, on which the indexes are printed

However, at least in this instance, the maker has decided, presumedly for reasons of economy,  not to make the whole of the back design opaque, but only the small oval on which the indexes are printed. This causes the little ovals on which the indexes are printed to stand up when the cards are held up to strong light.

The cards in question were purchased from the Japanese discount store Daiso.  



Irinokichi ( 入ノ 吉) - Nintendo

 

"入ノ 吉 / 入の 吉 " ( Irinokichi) , Nintendo - 48c. + Onifuda + blank 

 

    Another Kabu deck, with the rather pleasing name of "coming-in-luck"  this particular pattern differs from the others by several features.

Firstly, this deck uses the suit of batons, much like the Kabufuda . In fact, one could imagine that the kabufuda evolved from just such a deck, as the pip cards are almost identical.

  Secondly, unlike the other decks, this deck has all 3 courts. However, it is interesting to note that the knave has a rather realistic depiction of a person, unlike the knight and king, which are abstract forms



 

Key to Positions of cards in picture below:

Top row : 7, 8, 9, 10, [ knave] , [ knight] , [king]

Bottom row: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

 

 The pip cards.

 

from L-R, onifuda, special ace, special 4

Note the fact that the silver overprints on the cards are nearly transparent with age. The red on the onifuda has streaks on it, perhaps indicative of stencilling?

 

Circular playing cards I- house of marbles

"Circular playing cards/ Round playing cards" - House of marbles, 52c.+2

  Circular playing cards, although unusual, are by no means rare. The Indian Ganjifa cards are mostly circular in shape. This is doubtless due to the relative ease of making circles of regular shape than rectangles ( To make circles, one only needs a pair of dividers or compasses to trace the designs, whilst drawing rectangles calls for much work involving straightedges, which is wont to be inaccurate).
   However, as far as the west is concerned, circular playing cards are more often than not produced as novelties. This particular example is an English pattern. However, some modifications have been made to suit the format.

Spades

 

Notice that the court cards are repeated four times on each card, much like spokes on a wheel. In order for that to be achieved, the figures have to be stripped down a bit, thus making the king of spades look like four skittles!. The indexes are also repeated around the card in a similar fashion

The Joker displays a knight ( St, George?) slaying a dragon.

 

 

 

Diamonds

Note that although the courts have been repeated 4 times, the arrangement of the pips are as with a normal deck.

 

 

Clubs

Hearts.

The pips on the court cards seem to have been inverted

 

Cribbage boards

 Cribbage boards are pieces of equipment used to keep score in a game of cribbage. They are usually made of wood, with anywhere between 2 and 4 rows of holes, containing either 61 or 121 holes between them, reflecting the number of points the game is played to. The boards are supplied with several pegs, made of metal or wood, which are inserted into the holes, and advanced when points are scored.

  These boards come in a bewildering variety of shapes & formats. I have seen ones made of brass, others made of bone, but most are usually made of plain old wood. However, even wooden baords display a great variety in their construction.

Cribbage board- Jaques

This first example can be said to be representative of most of this species. It is made by Jaques of london , A famous maker of game equipment. It has 60 holes ( descounting the ones in which the pegs are placed in at the start), 30 on each side.

The pegs are stout little brass things. I coloured half of them black with a marker, so that I could distinguish them from the opposing side. Note the attractive trim down the middle of the board.

The pegs are stored in a cavity in the bottom of the board. It is closed with a metal lid.

 ***

"Cribbage"~ Piatnik

 This second example is of a folding board from a game set by piatnik. It is extrememly small ( -----) , and like the Jaques example, has 60 holes.

The pegs are also of metal, but inlike the jaques example, there are only 4 pegs, two of which are golden in colour, the others silver. They are much thinner than the jaques pegs.

They are also stored in a cavity on the back of the board.

***

Cribbage board- Hamley's 

Another folding board, this one from the  toy maker Hamley's. Again, it has 60 holes. Note the two cavities on either side of the board. These were meant to contain a deck of cards . The two cavaties in the middle of the board contain the cribbage pegs.

As you can see here, the side with the holes is on the inside of the boards.

The pegs are also made of metal, but there are 12 of them all in all. They are stored in a cavaty in the middle of the board.

***

cribbage board- anon



This brightly coloured folding board posses 121 holes, as opposed to the above 60 holed versions. The board also has 3 tracks, making it possible for up to 3 players to use this board for scoring a game, whatever it may be.

As shown in the above photograph, the track of the board has to be coiled in order for all 121 holes to be fitted into it. Here is a view of the start....

...and the finishing hole ( No. 121)

The pegs are made of plastic, but only one of them survives.



"Canasta special"- Modanio

"Canasta special"-Modanio-  54 x 3 cards

If you were to first see this deck of cards, without any introduction, one may be forgiven for thinking they were produced for a children's game- After all, how would you expect any serious game to be played with a deck which consists of pictures of fruit?
 
  However, it is not so. A serious game is indeed played with these cards, and it is Canasta. This becomes more apparent upon examining the deck's structure, and with a knowledge of how it is played.

 The subjects of a normal deck, have been replaced in this one with images of plants and animals. If one were to observe the indices of the deck. Firstly, the joker has an image of a copurnica ( D).  There are a pair of these cards, in each deck.

 Secondly, The 2s and aces are represented by a basket ( canasta in spanish) , and a pineapple.

( B, C) To reflect the black and red suits in a normal deck, Two of the cards have black frames, and two others have red ones.

  The red 3s of a normal deck(3♦, 3♥) now bear the image of a squirrel. The black 3s (3♣, 3♠,)  bear the image of a hound. There are only 2 of each card. ( A, J)

 The  4s, 5s, 6s and 7s have been replaced with images of berries. Like the pineapple and basket, their colour is reflected by that of their frame,  along with the colour of the fruit's stems and indices .

The 8s,  9s, 10s,  and the three court cards have been replaced with images of other kinds of fruit. Note the minature depictions of the fruit in the card's corner.

If you are somewhat confused, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canasta

Four colour cards- Hokkien

四色牌/ (Four colour cards), Anon - 112 c.

 Four colour cards, or Si sek pai as they are known in hokkien, are a form of playing card used in china and a great part of S/E asia. These cards are used to play a game much like rummy.

As the name of the deck implies, there are four suits, which are represented by the background colours of the cards. Each of the suits consists of seven subjects, taken from the ranks of a chinese chess ( Xiangqi) set.  The characters are written slightly differently for each side, and this difference is reflected in some decks, like this one. They are:

將 仕  相 車 馬 炮  卒 for Black,&

 帥 士  象 車 馬 炮 兵 for red. ~~

( General, valet, minister/ elephant , chariot, horse, and soldier)

Thus making a unit of 28 cards. Four units are united together to form a full deck of 112 cards.

  Now, the deck we have here is a smoewhat remarkable preservation- Such cards have been extinct in singapore for the past 30 or so years. This example is very old stock, which was somehow preserved in a chinese art supplier's back room,  from the properiteror's previous busisness as a game mearchant.

the red & yellow suits, and the back

As you can see, the cards are much shorter than the ones usually seen today. ( see ---) .
Also note the characters. Like the chess sets, they are written differently for each of the suits.
My grandaunt informs me that the sets are more or less identical to the cards of her youth, the only difference being that these cards are slightly shorter.

The green & white suits. The white suit appears pink due to the dye from the backs rubbing off on the paper

Another feature you may have spotted is the chinese charaters in the center of the card. I have yet to decipher their meaning, but they may be the company's name