Hi!

I saw am image and am trying to find the brand of playing cards it is. I talked to the man who took it who said they were "standard playing cards in Ukraine" (the image is found here: https://500px.com/photo/174014459/all-in......19429929 ). I haven't heard back when I asked about the brand.

Would anyone here know- if not this particular brand- the names of some common Russian playing card brands that might get me looking? I think it may be a variation of the faces shown on this World of Playing Cards page : http://www.wopc.co.uk/russia/ollis , the bottom image. I'd love any help. Thanks!

A guy in reddit found the deck in question. I'm just helping to post the link since he doesn't have an account here.

Deck: https://prom.ua/p614438648-koloda-kart-dama.html

Reddit post: https://www.reddit.com/r/Magic/comments/......a_favor/

Thank you! I never would have seen that Reddit post otherwise!

It's a standard soviet playing cards. In Soviet Union such term like "brand" never existed

Marko
Thank you my friend. I appreciate that. Makes me less worried about buying the wrong one.

Russian cards has such design from Russian Empire. If you can find such cards - they have value, but soviets - maybe 1$ for deck.

Forget to add, the real value, I think, had not the official cards in Russia but handmade ones. They called "Prison stos" and they made by prisoners in Russia. They have sacral meaning for Russian mafia

Forget to add, the real value, I think, had not the official cards in Russia but handmade ones. They called "Prison stos" and they made by prisoners in Russia. They have sacral meaning for Russian mafia

Wow, thank you for that info. I love hearing about that kind of stuff. I want to learn more about Prison Stos, they sound fascinating.

There are a series of books called, "Russian Criminal Tattoos" from a publisher called "Fuel". They now have an interesting--but expensive!--deck of playing cards based on what Marko told us are called "Prison stos".

I do not have the cards yet, and cannot recommend a purchase. But for information only, here's a link:

http://fuel-design.com/russian-criminal-......ographs/

@stoneunhinged Those look amazing. Thank you for sharing them. They will absolutely be my next purchase.

Not just my next playing card purchase. My next purchase period. Before milk or bread.

The cards are a wee bit different. They look great, and I'm happy to have them. BUT: they are not on normal card stock, so they can't be used like, say, a pack of bikes. It's lighter paper, with nothing like typical varnish or textures that a playing card manufacturer would be likely to use.

Still, I think they made the right choice: these are supposed to be something like people used in the Gulag, and they shouldn't feel and handle like bikes.

One more thing: they are so expensive that one really ought to think twice about why one wants them. I wanted them for my collection, and historical interest interests me. But if you want a deck to USE, this is not the deck. Not by a long shot.