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House of Commons Playing Cards

Published October 20, 2022 Updated October 28, 2022

House of Commons playing cards designed to serve as a civic guide to the UK Parliament.

2007 United Kingdom House of Commons Information Office Education Political

Produced by the House of Commons Information Office this pack of 52 cards and 4 jokers was meant to serve as a civic guide to the UK Parliament and was sometimes distributed to visiting groups. Each card has 4 corner indices and in the centre is a piece of information. The spade suit covers Legislation; clubs cover MPs and elections; hearts give information about History; and diamonds the House of Commons. The pack was produced 2007, at a time when there 646 Members of Parliament (see jack of clubs) and when the salary of a Member was £61,820 (see 3 of clubs).

Interestingly, the information on the six and seven of diamonds dates to the time when playing cards are first recorded in European history.

House of Commons playing cards produced by the House of Commons Information Office, 2007 House of Commons playing cards produced by the House of Commons Information Office, 2007 House of Commons playing cards produced by the House of Commons Information Office, 2007

Above: House of Commons playing cards produced by the House of Commons Information Office, 2007.

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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.

Russian Playing Cards

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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