Trading Mart
‘Trading Mart’ playing cards published by RusJoker, St Petersburg, 2005.
The word “mart” in Russian means the month of March, but like the word “treiding” I suspect it might also be a more recent Anglo-American import into the Russian language meaning “market” or “mart” in which case “Trading mart” or "Market trading" seems a more appropriate title than "March trading".
This 54-card advertising pack, with Russian indices, was published by RusJoker, St Petersburg in 2005, in a limited edition of 250 copies. Each suit sign is embellished with the logo or trademark of one particular Russian manufacturer: the Mikoyan Russian Aircraft Corporation, a major Russian aerospace and defence company (spades); KampoMos, a leading Russian manufacturer of sausages (hearts); Cherkizovsky Market, Europe's largest marketplace, located in Moscow between early 1990s to 2009 (diamonds); and Ostankino novyi standart, a wholesaler of meat and meat products (clubs).
The aces resemble those in the Russian style pack, while the courts bear a loose similarity to the Russian Epokha vozroshdeniya pack (though more fanciful).
Above: ‘Trading mart’ playing cards published by RusJoker, St Petersburg in 2005.
By Peter Burnett
United Kingdom • Member since July 27, 2022
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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