THE AMERICAN POKER COMPANY OPENED THE POKER MUSEUM

The American Poker Company opened the Poker Museum As early as 1900, the American Poker Company opened the Poker Museum. Today, the museum has a collection of 10,000 complete cards and 70,000 incomplete cards.
Not long ago, it was reported that the old European card company founded in 1765, the Cartamundi Group of Belgium, would acquire the American poker company.
In European and American countries, the history of playing card collection is very long. As early as the 15th century, poker has been collected. Yale University in the United States has collected more than three thousand pairs of playing cards, donated by the original collector before his death. There is a dedicated poker collection association in the United States, and others have published the “Encyclopedia of American Poker”.
For foreign collectors, the early playing cards are of course the best collections. You should know that the poker cards used to be luxury goods, which could only be owned by royal nobles. Because it is not handmade in mass production, each set of cards is very meticulous from pattern to material, representing the highest level of handicraft at that time, and many are also related to historical events and characters. This kind of poker was very valuable that year, and it was definitely a “big taxpayer”. For example, the United Kingdom took the lead in taxing playing cards in 1615.
However, the researcher’s statement about the time of taxation is not consistent. Another statement is in 1765, and it has a triggering effect. It is said that in that year, the United Kingdom began to levy taxes on playing cards. After the merchants paid taxes, the relevant departments will stamp the ace of the card to prove it. Some people will ask, will there be a phenomenon of forging the ace? The British government has given early warning that the highest punishment for counterfeiting ace is the death penalty.
It is precisely because of this action that highlights the role of ace and makes it one of the focal points in the design of playing cards.
You know, before that, the role of ace was not so great. It is generally presented in the form of a clown. It first appeared as a billboard or a versatile motorized card. At that time, the manufacturers would put a few extra billboards in a deck of playing cards to promote their own brands. In addition, playing poker for a long time is easy to lose cards, and these billboards can be replaced. In 1867, King of Size first appeared in American playing cards, and in 1880, British card manufacturers began to follow suit. However, because these two cards are not used in the traditional Western poker game, the king of the size is the only card that lacks the standard design.
As for the gameplay where the big and small kings become the biggest cards, some people think that they are derived from the Tarot cards, and the Joker is the biggest, but if you look closely, it should still be related to China. After poker flowed into China, a lot of games were invented everywhere, and the big and small kings were the biggest cards most of the time.
In addition to the trump card, what attracts collectors more, or better reflects the differences between different cards, is the suit on the back of the card. For collectors, the sense of design has always been one of the considerations, but for a long time, the back of the card has not been completely designed.
This is because poker used to be used for gambling, and gamblers pay attention and don’t want to be distracted by fancy designs. So for hundreds of years, the back of the cards was blank. In the early 19th century, Thomas De La Rue & Company, a British stationery supplier and printer, used a lithographic design on the back of the card, using dots, stars, and other simple line patterns.
This design not only increases the beauty of poker, but also benefits gamblers. Before that, gamblers only considered concentration issues, but did not consider security issues. The blank back of the cards is easy to leave stains. When we played cards as a child, we often remembered the cards through the stains or creases on the back of the cards. easy. In contrast, cards with patterns are more resistant to smudges and more convenient for gamblers to “compete.”
On the board, the diagonal arrangement we are now familiar with, that is, the double-headed card, is actually not a very long-term thing. For a long time, the numbers on the front of poker were in the upper right corner. It was not until the 1870s that manufacturers added digital and alphabetic information on the diagonal. Only after World War II did they apply for patents. The biggest advantage of this move is that players can fan the cards in one hand at a time without having to flip cards one by one.
These historical changes in poker seem inconspicuous today, but for collectors, they greatly add variety and fun.
In the 18th century, Spain began to produce small children’s poker. The Germans may have a larger poker size because of their larger hands. It is also Germany, where the first round of poker appeared, the United States began producing round poker in 1874, and the United Kingdom and Spain also have similar products. It is worth mentioning that the main shape of poker in India is round, which may be related to the long experience of being a British colony. After the 20th century, some manufacturers also produced other shapes of poker, such as 1929 concave lens poker, 1952 trapezoidal poker, and barrel, S-shaped, diamond-shaped and wave-shaped poker. These categories have become collectable treasures because of their small number.
Luxury poker, another option for European and American collectors
For European and American collectors, in addition to old poker, another highly valuable collection is luxury poker.
Many European and American luxury brands will develop some peripheral products, and poker is also one of the options.