Executive Deck
Executive Deck, otherwise known as “the Nixon Deck”, USA, 1973.
This pack, otherwise known as “the Nixon Deck” was produced by The Nixon Deck, Memphis, Tenn. in 1973. The caricatures were designed by Gordon Mercer and F.W. Smith. The Kings portray Richard Nixon and the queens Mrs Pat Nixon. The jacks show the 4 men “who shaped the political, economic and foreign strategy leading to the largest election landslide in U.S. history”. The jack of spades – Vice President Spiro Agnew; the jack of hearts – John Connally; jack of diamonds – John Mitchell; jack of clubs – Henry Kissinger.
Above: Executive Deck political playing cards produced by The Nixon Deck, Memphis, Tenn. in 1973.
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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