Issued in 1927 (revised from 1928, thanks to information from Clay Boulware). Discontinued in 1943, but revived in the 1990s for a Spades deck (see the second image, below), and a solitaire set. For a back design with such a long run, it is surprisingly (and extremely) hard to find. Until Clay sent me the image of his blue deck, below, I had never seen a full Bicycle Eagle deck, much less a box. When singles occasionally show up, they may be from one of the Capitol decks that preceded the Bicycle use of the Eagle back (see the last paragraph, below) or from one of the later USPCC reissues. The Spades cards can at least be easily recognized because the indices are in all four corners.

This is a back design that would feel right at home in Andrew Dougherty’s Outing card series, which featured backs with different game and wild animals. See one of the two Outing eagle back designs, below.

A collector friend writes, “In my 1908 sample book, Eagle and Stag backs are both shown as being offered under the Capitol #188 brand which, according to Hochman, was phased out in 1928. This dovetails rather nicely with their subsequent introduction into the Bicycle brand. Given that these two back designs were apparently successful with at least a 20-year run, perhaps, this was USPC’s way to extend their sales lives.”