Autocycle No.1

N 11

Introduced in 1901 and discontinued in 1906. This deck depicts a motorized tricycle (see a detail of the fantastic machine, below). Note that a bicycle chain acts as the inner border in the design. Listed by Mrs. Robinson as having been produced in green and brown, but I have never seen even a single card in either of those colors. Decks in red or blue are also extremely scarce (I only have a few singles). See two singles, below, which are two different variants of the US8d joker. The one on the right was used in an early store display. The holes were made to string a number of cards together in a garland.

In another contender for most expensive single Bicycle card, on May 21, 2016 a red Autocycle No. 1 single sold for $179 on eBay, with three bids over $150. Relatively calmer heads prevailed as another red single sold for $63 (USD) on July 2, 2016. That’s still a large sum for a single card, though.

Rod Starling has informed me that in September 2016 USPC has issued another reproduction deck: Autocycle No. 1. Like the Autobike No. 3 reproductions issued in 2015, the Autocycle No. 1 deck is available exclusively at Target, although a recent check of their website revealed no listing for the cards. The deck comes in two colors, green and purple, in a box inspired by the rare Bicycle Junior No. 21 box. The front and back of the Autocycle No. 1 box is pictured below.