Bicycle Blue Collar / White Collar playing cards
Bicycle Blue Collar / White Collar playing cards, USA, 2014.
Printed by the United States Playing Card Company, this pair of Bicycle limited edition packs each had a print run of 4000. They were published by Collectable Playing Cards through Kickstarter, and designed by Johnny Whaam. One pack is dedicated to blue collar workers (with the courts displaying trades such as blacksmith, seamstress, house painter, mechanic and electrician), while the second is devoted to white collar workers such as accountant, dentist, reporter, lawyer, doctor and architect. According to the original Kickstarter campaign the cards are dedicated to “all the hard workers who understand what it’s like to actually do an honest day’s worth of work. These are the men and women who earn their rights to relax with that cold glass of beer at the end of the day”.
Both packs have two jokers and a gaff card.
Blue Collar
The blue collar cards have a weathered yellow background and the workers are identified by a stamp (akin to a tax stamp).
Above: Bicycle Blue Collar playing cards designed by Johnny Whaam, USA, 2014.
White Collar
The white collar cards are set against a white background, with the name of the profession written in capitals along each side. The pips are elegant and ornate.
Above: Bicycle White Collar playing cards designed by Johnny Whaam, USA, 2014.
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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