This design is probably the rarest of all Bicycle decks. Only a few full decks are known to exist, and it was not included in Mrs. Robinson’s otherwise comprehensive catalogue of Bicycle cards in 1955.

Gene Hochman, in his extraordinary Encyclopedia of American Playing Cards, called this newly discovered early Bicycle deck “Oak Leaf.” But, there was already a deck known as “Oak Leaf” — number 36 in Mrs. Robinson’s pamphlet for Bicycle card collectors. Robinson, however, inexplicably called that deck “Leaf,” even though it is always shown as “Oak Leaf” on the original box. The Oak Leaf deck can be seen HERE, or by clicking on “36” on the home page of this site. In an attempt to avoid further confusion, I call the deck on this page “Leaf,” and No. 36 by its original and correct name, “Oak Leaf.”

The eBay auction results cited below represent the only public sale of a Leaf deck that I am aware of, and only the third Leaf deck known to me. There is one red deck and one other blue deck. Was it worth the hammer price? No joker and no box are strikes against it, and the deck is euchred (a striped effect when the cards are put in order and viewed on edge, due to only 32 cards being used in the game of euchre). Having said all that,  you may never see another Leaf deck offered at auction.