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Lincard

Published June 12, 2016 Updated April 12, 2022

“Lincard” card game invented by John William Wolf and patented in 1937.

1937 United Kingdom John William Wolf Patent Card Games

Lincard was invented by John William Wolf and patented in 1937. The game consists of a custom 49-card deck and the object is to play cards so that they link to other cards of the same suit, as shown in the photos below. Cards contain miniature representations of standard English playing cards along with extra graphics relating to the way this game is played.

See the original patent application

“Lincard” card game invented by John William Wolf and patented in 1937 “Lincard” card game invented by John William Wolf and patented in 1937

Above: “Lincard” card game invented by John William Wolf and patented in 1937. 49 cards in padded box + rules. There are no jokers. The cards were manufactured by the Universal Playing Card Co., Leeds and one of their standard back designs has been used in this pack. Seeing that there are so many tax wrapped specimens on ebay, surplus stocks may have been dumped somewhere owing to the advent of the war.


REFERENCES & CREDITS

See original patent application

Thanks to Matt Probert for additional research.

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By Simon Wintle

Member since February 01, 1996

Founder and editor of the World of Playing Cards since 1996. He is a former committee member of the IPCS and was graphics editor of The Playing-Card journal for many years. He has lived at various times in Chile, England and Wales and is currently living in Extremadura, Spain. Simon's first limited edition pack of playing cards was a replica of a seventeenth century traditional English pack, which he produced from woodblocks and stencils.


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