Bankunión playing cards

The link between gastronomy and banking may not be an obvious one but, according to one of the extra cards in this pack, the richness of a people can never be measured by money alone. Twenty-four of the Spanish-suited cards (suits of coins and swords) list the ingredients and the remainder the recipes (suits of cups and batons) for 24 regional dishes. Half of the space on each card is taken up with a photograph in full colour of the dish in question. The location where each dish can be sampled is given at the foot of every card. The manufacturer’s name appears very discreetly on the 5 of Swords.

Above: Bankunión playing cards printed by Heraclio Fournier, S.A., Vitoria, Spain, for Bankunión, 1981. 48 cards + 2 extra cards in clear plastic box. Size: 61.5 x 95 mm.

By the following year (1982), Bankunión appears to have gone bust. "When it was established that the solution for Bankunión necessarily involved the sale of a portion of its assets, and no buyer was found, it was in November 1981 when formal negotiations began by the Deposit Guarantee Fund to find a buyer among the major Spanish banks. These negotiations concluded last Tuesday with its award to Banco Hispano Americano." - El Pais, 11 Apr 1982: Bankunión fue incapaz de superar la crisis económica►