Stocks & Shares
Stocks & Shares card game first published by Pepys Games in 1957.
Stocks & Shares card game was first published by Pepys Games in 1957. It is a Double Feature game in that it also includes coloured counters, toy currency, share certificates and share value scoring boards. Basically it is an updated version of Win-A-Lot which had been published in 1951. The 1951 date on the share certificates was not changed although the company names were. During the game share values rise and fall depending on which cards affect them. The object is, by buying and selling shares, to be the player with the most money at the end of the game.
Above: box from 1st edition of Stocks & Shares card game by Pepys, 1957. In the second edition the metal coins are replaced with £1 paper notes. (Click image to zoom).
Above: Stocks & Shares card game first published by Pepys Games in 1957 and then again in 1960 with the metal £1 coins replaced with paper currency.
By Rex Pitts (1940-2021)
Member since January 30, 2009
Rex's main interest was in card games, because, he said, they were cheap and easy to get hold of in his early days of collecting. He is well known for his extensive knowledge of Pepys games and his book is on the bookshelves of many.
His other interest was non-standard playing cards. He also had collections of sheet music, music CDs, models of London buses, London Transport timetables and maps and other objects that intrigued him.
Rex had a chequered career at school. He was expelled twice, on one occasion for smoking! Despite this he trained as a radio engineer and worked for the BBC in the World Service.
Later he moved into sales and worked for a firm that made all kinds of packaging, a job he enjoyed until his retirement. He became an expert on boxes and would always investigate those that held his cards. He could always recognize a box made for Pepys, which were the same as those of Alf Cooke’s Universal Playing Card Company, who printed the card games. This interest changed into an ability to make and mend boxes, which he did with great dexterity. He loved this kind of handicraft work.
His dexterity of hand and eye soon led to his making card games of his own design. He spent hours and hours carefully cutting them out and colouring them by hand.
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