Introduced in 1907. Discontinued in 1917. Thus, Motor No. 1 was replaced by Motor No. 2, a much less interesting back design, but one that still features an early automobile motor. As with Motor No. 1, this back design is rare in either color, and especially rare in blue.

One of the Bicycle back designs exported to the United Kingdom. Please click on “UK” above for more information. I also have a red deck of Motor No. 2 cards that was exported to Germany. This interesting deck has a standard tuck case with a special marbled inner sleeve inside the box, as well as a German tax stamp on the Ace of Hearts. This is the only Bicycle deck from the era that I have ever seen with German credentials. In May of 2022, a blue US8c Motor No. 2 deck sold on eBay with a German tax stamp on the ace of hearts (see below).  Interestingly, this deck has an “A” date code which should correspond to 1920. But, the German tax stamp is in black ink, which dates the deck no later than 1912 as the color of the Imperial German tax stamp was apparently changed to a violet color in that year. This is one of a few apparent discrepancies in the USPCC dating code. I will know more when I complete an inventory of my Bicycle cards (someday soon, I hope).

With the help of Jon Randall, a dealer in the UK, I have found a new back design that was modeled very closely on the Motor No. 2 back (see a comparison between the two designs, below). According to Jon, these cards were manufactured by C.L. Wüst, a German playing card manufacturer (1811-1927), and can be identified both by the style of pips as well as the six-pointed star in the center of the wheel, which is a Wüst trademark (see the last image, below). To visit Jon’s eBay playing card store, click here: Worldwide Playing Cards.