Introduced in 1918 and apparently withdrawn from circulation in 1918. Toward the end of the first World War, the United States Playing Card Company produced four “War Series” decks under the Bicycle brand to represent each of the branches of the U.S. armed services: Big Gun for the Army, Dreadnaught for the Navy, Flying Ace for the Air Force, and Conqueror (aka Invincible) for the Marine Corp. The decks were printed in 1917, and evidently only given an extremely limited release before being withdrawn from circulation. It is unknown why the decks were not circulated, but one theory is that they were intended to be distributed to the troops overseas, and USPCC destroyed their inventory of the War Decks when Armistice was declared in 1918. The other three designs in the War Series can be seen by clicking on these links: Big Gun, Flying Ace and Invincible.

Only seven of these extremely rare War Series decks are in collector’s hands today. Of the seven, there are three complete Dreadnaught decks: two blue decks in their original boxes, and one red deck without a box.  Interestingly, both blue decks are opened but mint in their waxed paper inner wrappers. I have never seen a Dreadnaught single offered, except for one sample card, shown in the last image, below.

Pictured below is an Andrew Dougherty Chain back deck with a similar theme to its very handsome ace of spades.