Subtle Differences

Today I was at a party goods store looking around. At the store there was an assortment of casino playing cards for sale. I was looking through the cards and there was 1 deck of playing cards from the Mirage in Las Vegas. Something looked different in my mind, it looked like the logo was thicker than the original decks I purchased in 1989 soon after the property opened. I never noticed the difference before. The deck I bought at the store had a code dating the deck as manufactured in 2005.

Above is a back style soon after the opening of the Mirage, these cards were purchased in December 1989.The above back style has a USPC date code dating it approximately 2005. Notice the logo is thicker and the base of one of the palm tree's is located next to the dot in the letter "i" in Mirage. The gold color in the palms has more of a yellowish color.

Above is an image of the cards superimposed on top of each other. The 1989 back style has a shorter wider logo oval. The 2005 cards have a narrow and taller logo oval. and the logo style is thicker.

I do not know at this time when the style was changed. I guess I should have paid closer attention.

Going International

My collection of casino playing cards is mainly from North America, Caribbean and Austrailia. I have a few decks from casinos and clubs in Europe. I do not have any from the new hotbed of gaming Macau, even though I have tried for years to get an example of a deck from STDM (Dr. Stanley Ho's Monopoly) prior to the expansion of gaming licenses to other operators.

Since I have been scanning cards I have found a new way to catalog the cards in an easy to follow format and I have started cataloging the collection to create a new guide. But I really wanted to get an international presence in my collection so I have been trying to contact casinos and clubs around the world to make the catalog a worth while project.
So if you have any decks, singles or a good scan of some foreign casino playing cards please drop me a line at mpetty4@cox.net I am looking for anything from Asia, Australia/Pacific, Europe, Africa (Especially scans from South African casinos because I have been told they destroy their cards by law) South America and Central America.