Collecting with a full deck

By Lew Cady

Playing cards have two sides. The front sides have numbers and pictures of royalty on 'em. The backsides are all the same.

But you knew that.

What you might not know is that there are two kinds of playing card collectors in the world. Some just collect back sides, one from a deck. Others collect front sides-which means they collect entire decks, all 52 cards plus jokers.

Jim McCoy started out as a single card (back sides) collector, seeking as many different beer or brewery cards as he could find. He liked the idea that when he acquired a new deck he had 52 or 53 traders. Then he discovered something very interesting: Many decks of playing cards put out by breweries have a special ace of spades. This card often bears a picture of the beer in a bottle or the brewery or some other beery representation.

McCoy liked that. And then he found that some decks of brewery cards give special treatment to all the aces. Or all the face cards. Or, in some especially wonderful cases, to every card in the deck.

That settled it. From that point on, he collected only complete decks of beer and brewery playing cards. He now has 415 (including 20 different Hamm's decks), accumulated mostly through visits to flea markets and collectables shows. "A lot of decks have been played with and just have rubber bands around them," he said.

Over the years, breweries have put out all kinds of cards. In addition to the traditional decks containing 52 cards plus jokers, there are canasta decks and pinochle decks and pairs of decks-one might have red back sides, the other, blue.

Other big collectors are Ethel Ayleton from Illinois, Herb and Helen Haydock from Wisconsin, and Ward Haessler from Nebraska.

The Haydocks have scoured the world over for breweriana, and their collection includes a lot of foreign beers and breweries. Haessler displays his collection in a rotating case that formerly housed Timex watches.

Do they keep those cards shuffled or in order, card by card and suit by suit?

"You gotta keep 'em in order," said McCoy. "Otherwise, how're you gonna know they're all there?"

Obviously, the man is playing with a full deck.