gejus-08-04

This month's secondary used playing card is my most recent acquisition. More precisely, I bought it on Ebay just yesterday. I do not even have the card in my possession yet. The low resolution scan was made by the American seller, who was so kind to reveal me the story behind the card.

On the first of July 1930 the very first airmail flight from Seattle to San Diego was celebrated with special stamps on the mail transported by this plane. An anonymous playing card enthusiast in San Diego, located on 3517 Indiana Street, did send at least 31 playing cards as postal articles, all with a 5 cents stamp and addressed to himself.

Was it a complete deck? Definitely not. First of all court cards and 10's, 9's, 8's of Spades and Clubs do not leave enough space for typing the address. The seller informed me that he did find 30 cards, all with the same secondary use and mailed on this first flight. Two of the cards are jokers and there are five Aces in the lot. Thanks to Tom Dawson, a well-known playing card collector in Canada, I know of one other card, owned by an American stamp collector. It is the 3 of Diamonds, pictured here below. His scan is of high quality and I took the liberty of using it to show you more detail. At the moment I do not know yet if this card is one of the lot of 30 or a separate item. Anyway, it looks exactly like the others. Mine is the only playing card with the First Flight stamp upside down.

The seller found the 30 airmailed cards in the stamp collection of his late grandfather. Being no collector himself, he is selling them one by one at Ebay. If you're lucky, you can buy one at a price you can afford. Dutch collector and friend Paul Symons bought the 2 of Diamonds.

Back in 1965 in Belgium a complete pack of cards was specially stamped like a first Day Cover at the occasion of the European Bridge Tournament. In my collection I have several playing cards that were mailed like a postcard, the oldest in 1924. Long before that year, in the 18th century, playing cards were used as address label to deliver packages. This secondary use was widely spread in France, but I have one 18th century playing card address label from great Britain with the name and address of a member of the House of Parliament.

If you know of other examples op playing cards reused for mail, please let me know.