Bicycle Playing Cards
It's from 1885, before you were born.
- Maker
- United States Playing Card Co.
- Type
- Playing cards
- Debuted
- 1885
- Note
- The default deck for a thousand games
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About
As of 2026, it's 141 years old.
Bicycle playing cards have been the standard American deck since 1885, the rider-back design so ubiquitous it's practically invisible — the cards in the junk drawer, the magician's hand, and every poker night since the 19th century. The brand name and bike logo nodded to the cycling craze of the era.
A single 52-card Bicycle deck is the most versatile toy ever made: it's poker, solitaire, gin, war, blackjack, go fish, magic tricks, and a house of cards all in one. Magicians swear by them, and they even went to WWII as escape-map smuggling decks for POWs.
Ubiquitous, versatile, and quietly historic, Bicycle playing cards are the humble deck that's been quietly enabling a thousand different games for nearly 140 years.
