Introduced in ca. 1887 (revised from 1891 due to US8a examples surfacing). Discontinued in 1943. Acorn is one of the most pleasing graphic designs in the Bicycle line-up. The back was clearly popular throughout its run as examples can be found fairly easily in all but its earliest US8a iteration. Interestingly, while brown and green variants of all Bicycle decks are quite rare in comparison to red and blue, brown and green Acorns turn up more often, and usually don’t command outrageous prices (see Sales Data, below). The first image below shows a brown Acorn Seconds deck, which was most likely sold in the UK. The next image shows a green US8b Acorn ace of spades.
Acorn is one of several early Bicycle back designs that features the League of American Wheelmen logo of the Bicycle wheel with three wings. Please see the League Back page for more information.
Pictured below is a set of four colored Acorn backs. These were produced by a British card manufacturer, Chas. Goodall. While I assume that the USPCC is the originator of the Acorn design, I have no direct evidence other than the knowledge that Acorn was one of the earliest Bicycle back designs. I am also not clear how both versions of the Acorn back were apparently marketed in the United Kingdom simultaneously without a copyright issue arising. Thanks to a collector friend for the Goodall information.
The next image shows a comparison between a red Acorn card that was offered on eBay and a standard Acorn. I didn’t notice until months later that the red card was backwards compared to the standard Acorn design. This sometimes happens when a back design has been counterfeited: the design is photographed and a printing plate is made from the resulting image. When printed, this plate makes a reversed image. See the Knock-Offs page for examples of counterfeit Rider and New Fan backs with reversed images.
The last image, below, shows the box for the Heritage Series reissue of Acorn. The box design is modeled after a US8c box, but the color is non-standard (for Bicycle cards anyway).
SALES DATA
A red US8b Acorn joker sold on eBay for $60 on October 21, 2016. Any US8b joker is relatively rare, so I believe this was a reasonable hammer price.
A brown US8b Acorn deck (no joker, no box) sold on eBay for $137 on November 15, 2016. That may seem like a low price for a brown Bicycle deck, but brown and green Acorns are actually the most common of all the brown and green decks.
A blue US8a Acorn ace of spades sold on eBay for $78 on April 23, 2017. That, to me, was a surprisingly high price.
A VG green US8b Acorn deck sold on eBay for $76 on December 14, 2017, which is probably the most reasonably priced green Bicycle deck ever, although as noted above, the Acorns are the least rare of such decks.
A set of three brown Acorn singles sold on eBay for $30 on March 9, 2018.
A brown Acorn single sold on eBay for $10 on December 16, 2019.
A VG red USd Acorn deck (no joker/no box) sold on eBay for $14 on September 12, 2020.
A VG- green USb Acorn deck (no joker/no box) sold on eBay for $64 on September 16, 2020.
A blue Acorn single sold on eBay for $4.75 on October 4, 2025.
A green Acorn single sold on eBay for $4.75 on October 4, 2025.
A brown Acorn single sold on eBay for $4.75 on September 13, 2025.
