I recently got a deck of cards in something I bought at an antique store. There is no identified for the manufacturer, so I am trying to pin it down, and a date, too, if possible. Here are scans of the back design and the ace of spades:

As you can see, the Ace of Spades has a blue code. If this is a United States Playing Card company, this suggests the deck was made in 1921 or 1976. I have never seen a deck with such a small number after the letter code, so it could be 1921. I don't know how to tell. The card faces look like modern cards, so it could be 1976. The only other year where they used the B code was in 1996, and the code would have been in black, not blue.

I have never seen an Ace of Spades with this design, and it says it was manufactured in Canada. I did a google search on playing card manufacturers in Canada and only found one reference. It was around in the 1920's, but there were no pictures of an Ace of Spades and no pictures of this back design.

Anyone have any knowledge that might lead me in the right direction?

Update: I asked on the website of an officer of one of the card collecting club and he suggested they were made in Windsor, Canada (not where I had looked) and were probably made in 1921 as part of the generic USPC Rambler Whist #22 series. He had not seen this design before, but it fit the time period. Cool.

Michael Siskin