Victor E. Mauger was born in England and emigrated to New York in 1855. He started a business importing metal goods. Around 1870 he also began importing playing cards from the Chas. Goodall & Son company from England. The Goodall Company began making special decks with a unique Ace of Spades for their American decks. By 1873 Mauger started to manufacture his own brand of playing cards to supplement his supply and he altogether dropped Goodall in 1876 due to high import duties. His deck printed in 1876, The Centennial Exposition Deck is thought to be the first deck to commemorate a fair. They were made in conjunction with the world's fair in Philadelphia. The deck also commemorates the 100 year anniversary of the signing of the declaration of independence. The cards had several unique details that set them apart from other american decks of the day. They were slightly larger measuring 90mm x 62mm as opposed to the standard poker size. Indices were just beginning to be used. Andrew Dougherty had a patent in 1876 for his Triplicates and The New York Consolidated company had a patent the same year for their Squeezers. Mauger wanted to use Indices on his cards so he opted to put them in all 4 corners making them Quadruplicates. He went a step further and like many popular European decks made the pips 4 colors with Black Spades, Red Hearts, Yellow Diamonds, and Blue Clubs. Almost sounds like a lucky charms commercial. The decorative ace of spades has the dates 1776 & 1876 commemorating the 100 year anniversary of the signing of Declaration of Independence. It also has the latin words "NUNQUAM RETRORSUM"; translation: "No Revoke" or "Never Retreat" There will be 5 versions of this deck, They are listed in greater detail as you scroll down the page. USPCC Standard (Blue Back) USPCC Limited (1,000) (Blue Back) - THIS DECK! Mauger Replica (Red Back) Mauger Limited (1,000) (Red Back) Mauger Original Release Limited (500) (Red Back)

NOT YET RELEASED (This should NOT have been added to PCDB yet, changed name and modified date to 2015 which is expected release date Funded as a Kickstarter project on September 12, 2014 with $23,517 pledged from 272 backers, this was a 5 deck set. Produced by Michael Scott and Home Run Games, these decks are based on Victor E. Mauger\'s 1876 The Centennial Exposition Deck which commemorated the world fair in Philadelphia & the declaration of Independence. The 5 deck set included USPCC Standard (Blue Back), USPCC Limited (1,000 copies - Blue Back), Mauger Replica (Red Back), Mauger Limited (1,000 copies - Red Back), Mauger Original Release Limited (500 copies - Red Back). This PCDB Entry is for the Mauger Original Release Limited (Red Back). Like the others it was printed by USPCC with a Linoid Finish with a custom replica stamp-sticker. However, it only contains 53 cards and deck size of 90mm x 62mm just like the original. Like the Mauger Limited deck, it also came in a red replica 2 piece heavy cloth cardboard box with hot stamp foil gold star, plus the cards featured gold gilt edges and included a gold metal numbered Ace of Spades certificate (where Mauger Limited was stainless). In addition, it came wrapped in Ace of Spades wrapper and sealed with 2 seal, plus was missing the 5 of clubs (packaged outside of the box), which are the features that differ it from the Mauger Limited deck. Regarding 5 of clubs being packaged outside of the box, the original deck had a flaw where this card was missing from the deck. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1500444958/1876-mauger-quadruplicate-playing-card-restoration

Colorado Centennial 1876-1976