JANUARY 2026

Apparently it's the Dutch month here. Not only is the Deck of the Month Dutch, but now I've chosen a Dutch joker as well. And...... both are a bit of a mystery.
I found this joker among the vast offer at the collectors meeting in Geel, Belgium, which is held on the first Sunday of February, April, September and November. Today that posed a small problem. I didn't want to browse through Miriam's albums....again, so I had decided to go to Geel and find a suitable joker there for this spot and do the update a little later.

It was my first visit to this meeting and I was impressed by the number of attendants and dealers. I had always assumed that, being a follow-up of the meetings in Hasselt, the offer would be mostly jokers and backs, but there was a good number of decks on offer too. Although the offer didn't show much antique decks, there were interesting vintage and modern decks to be found. My quest was to find a joker, but as I had brought jokers and decks myself too I was more preoccupied with selling than with browsing the other tables. However, this one caught my eye. The joker comes from a Dutch deck, described as G-J and dated as c1944. The name was derived from the design on the box, which shows a shield with a monogram of these letters. The dating was based on the flimsy paper, scarce by the end of WWII here, on which it was printed. So a bit of a mystery deck too. 
The courts had the international pattern, but with one oddity........

a smiling jack.

The jokers of the month from.....