re: #55 Decatur Deb

Found a couple hits on The Magic Cafe—no old kinetoscopes.

Here’s a question I asked on The Magic Cafe… something I have never got an answer to.

Maybe you could solve this problem once and for all. I have been told that off the shelf Bicycle brand cards (Rider Back Design) are marked, and have been for decades.

The info I have been given is that it is a random marking scheme, meaning there are 52 marks, in 52 places and you need to know where to look. No clock scheme, so no flip-book effect.

I have also been told that a full map of the markings has never been written down. This “rumor” came from the mouths of a number of well-known card men of the past 3 decades. And I have heard this from these card workers at very different times.

The last “clue” to this is the fact that I was tipped to the mark on the Ace of Spades, and that mark is certainly there, part of the design, right from the printers.

So… is it a rumor… old wives-tale… my meds wearing off… or am I a dead man for even mentioning this?

What’s interesting, in the least, the Ace of Spades mark is there. It may simply be a engraving error handed down from the early printings, I don’t know. But I can show you a “mark” on a Bicycle Rider Back on the Ace of Spades that is NO WHERE on any of the other 51 cards.

I have Bicycle Rider Back decks for the 30’s… and I find the same mark. It’s not hand added, it’s the way it comes from the printer.

So… my question still stands.