International Playing-Card Society


The International Playing-Card Society is a non-profit
organisation for those interested in playing cards, their
design, and their history. While many of its members are
collectors of playing cards, they also include historians of
playing cards and their uses, particularly card games and their history.
The IPCS is based in the United Kingdom, but has members worldwide,
especially in Europe.
It produces a quarterly journal The Playing-Card, which
publishes articles mostly in English but also in French, German,
Italian and Spanish. It also publishes occasional monographs
called "IPCS Papers", and issues pattern sheets which systematize
types of standard playing-card design.

History

The IPCS was founded in 1972, as The Playing-Card Society, with a
journal titled The Journal of the Playing-Card Society. In May
1980 the names of the society and the journal were changed, becoming
The International Playing-Card Society and The Playing-Card.
A newsletter, which became known as Playing-Card World, was
formerly published as a supplement to the journal, running for 80
issues from 1975 to 1995.

Notable members

Notable members of the Society are or have included: