Astérix
Astérix and friends on a Winning Moves pack for the French market.
How strange to find a quintessentially British brand name – Waddingtons – on a pack for the French market featuring Astérix the Gaul! René Goscinny and Albert Uderzo’s much-loved and ever-popular creation appears alongside other familiar but unnamed characters, although Astérix and Obélix have been relegated to two of the Jacks, with Idéfix as one of the Jokers. A paint effect has been employed to add background colour to the Aces, resulting in an absence of colour for the suit-signs on these cards. The indices are small and in French, with frames surrounding those on the numeral cards. Sadly, as so often with packs from this publisher, a see-through board has been used, no doubt reducing the cost of production. • See the box
Above: Astérix playing cards published by Winning Moves UK Ltd, London, UK, 2022. 52 cards + 2 Jokers in tuck box. Size: 58 x 88 mm. © 2022 Winning Moves UK Limited. Printer unknown.
Judging by the label on my second-hand pack, this pack was originally purchased in an E. Leclerc supermarket.
By Roddy Somerville
France • Member since May 31, 2022
Roddy started collecting stamps on his 8th birthday. In 1977 he joined the newly formed playing-card department at Stanley Gibbons in London before setting up his own business in Edinburgh four years later. His collecting interests include playing cards, postcards, stamps (especially playing cards on stamps) and sugar wrappers. He is a Past President of the Scottish Philatelic Society, a former Chairman of the IPCS, a Past Master of the Worshipful Company of Makers of Playing Cards and Curator of the WCMPC’s collection of playing cards. He lives near Toulouse in France.
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