Moscow Poker
“Moscow” - from the Soviet series produced by Sprint, Ivanovo, 2013.
This attractive pack of 52 poker-size cards presents 52 different pictures of the Soviet era. The pictures are wide-ranging and include: planes, metro stations, buildings, monuments, motor cars, works of art, posters, space craft, Lenin’s Mausoleum, etc. The aces show soviet medals and orders of honour, while the court cards display pictures of Soviet heroes. All cards have large corner indices.
This pack is one of a series of “Designer playing cards” by Sprint, Ivanovo, 2013. Packs include: Symbols of prestige and success; Weapons of Russia; Moscow - Soviet series; Moscow; Romanov Dynasty. All were published in 2013.
Above: “Moscow” - from the Soviet series of “Designer playing cards” produced by Sprint, Ivanovo, 2013.
By Peter Burnett
United Kingdom • Member since July 27, 2022 • Contact
I graduated in Russian and East European Studies from Birmingham University in 1969. It was as an undergraduate in Moscow in 1968 that I stumbled upon my first 3 packs of “unusual” playing cards which fired my curiosity and thence my life-long interest. I began researching and collecting cards in the early 1970s, since when I’ve acquired over 3,330 packs of non-standard cards, mainly from North America, UK and Western Europe, and of course from Russia and the former communist countries.
Following my retirement from the Bodleian Library in Dec. 2007 I took up a new role as Head of Library Development at the International Network for the Availability of Scientific Publications (INASP) to support library development in low-income countries. This work necessitated regular training visits to many sub-Saharan African countries and also further afield, to Vietnam, Nepal and Bangladesh – all of which provided rich opportunities to further expand my playing card collection.
Since 2019 I’ve been working part-time in the Bodleian Library where I’ve been cataloguing the bequest of the late Donald Welsh, founder of the English Playing Card Society.
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