Bank of England playing cards
Bank of England playing cards, reflecting prominent characters and events from the Bank’s history.
This pack of cards was printed in Belgium in 1992 for the Governor and Company of the Bank of England. The court cards together with the ace of spades reflect prominent characters and events from the Bank’s history – all of which are detailed in a separate information card. For example, the king of spades shows Sir john Houblon, first governor 1694-97, and the king of diamonds shows Edward Payne, governor 1771-1773. Other courts display uniforms and bank livery or other associated items (e.g. on the queen of hearts, the old lady of Threadneedle Street from a Gilray cartoon (1797) from which the Bank’s name is believed to be derived). The Bank’s first seal is featured on the reverse.
Above: Bank of England playing cards published by the Governor and Company of the Bank of England, 1992.
• Bank of England: History►
By Peter Burnett
Member since July 27, 2022
I graduated in Russian and East European Studies from Birmingham University in 1969. It was as an undergraduate in Moscow in 1968 that I stumbled upon my first 3 packs of “unusual” playing cards which fired my curiosity and thence my life-long interest. I began researching and collecting cards in the early 1970s, since when I’ve acquired over 3,330 packs of non-standard cards, mainly from North America, UK and Western Europe, and of course from Russia and the former communist countries.
Following my retirement from the Bodleian Library in Dec. 2007 I took up a new role as Head of Library Development at the International Network for the Availability of Scientific Publications (INASP) to support library development in low-income countries. This work necessitated regular training visits to many sub-Saharan African countries and also further afield, to Vietnam, Nepal and Bangladesh – all of which provided rich opportunities to further expand my playing card collection.
Since 2019 I’ve been working part-time in the Bodleian Library where I’ve been cataloguing the bequest of the late Donald Welsh, founder of the English Playing Card Society.
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