Centennial Olympic Games playing cards
Centennial Olympic Games playing cards celebrating the centenary of the modern Olympic Games, 1896-1996.
Produced under the Bicycle brand by the United States Playing Card Company c. 1993, this pack both celebrates the centenary of the modern Olympic Games, 1896-1996, and also promotes the Games to be held in Atlanta, Georgia in the centennial year of 1996. Each card, with the exception of the Aces, depicts nostalgic logos, posters and mascots from both the Summer and Winter Games over the last century. The Aces show the same mascot of the [then] forthcoming Games in Atlanta, 1996. There are two wildcards and two extra information cards: the first detailing the origins of the modern Olympics and the second promoting the forthcoming Atlanta Games. See the box►
Above: Centennial Olympic Games playing cards produced by the United States Playing Card Company c. 1993.
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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