Introduced in 1894. Discontinued in 1908. A very pleasant design that strives for symmetry in its outer regions but relinquishes all hope in the central motif. Not rare by any means, but certainly uncommon in an original box, and especially paired with its joker. Some, but not all, Pneumatic No. 1 decks were issued with the joker upside down relative to the back design. Some US8b decks were also issued with the ace of spades upside down as well. “Pneumatic” refers to the type of tire that is featured on the card.

In June of 2017, I revised this page to reflect the discovery of a US8c version of Pneumatic No. 1. Before this time, I had never seen a US8c issue of this deck. The first image, below, shows the ace of spades (sold on ebay as a single, not a complete deck). While the most recent issue, this version of Pneumatic should be considered scarce. Since this discovery I have found one full deck of the US8c release of Pneumatic No. 1.

A sharp eyed collector noticed that there is a very rare variant of Pneumatic No. 1 that was issued with an asymmetrical border design. On the standard Pneumatic No. 1 back, the tiny wheels in the border design all overlap in the same direction. The rare variant has wheels overlapping in both directions, and can be detected from a distance by noting the stripes between and below the gentleman and lady rider’s wheels. The two interlocked tires also have finer engraved lines on the rare version. See the second image, below, for a comparison with the more common version. How did this happen? The asymmetrical version was issued first, and then corrected soon after the design’s release. Cupid had the exact same error in its early releases. Most Bicycle cards that had a longer run can be found with subtly different versions as new printing plates were crafted to replace worn ones (see Wheel No. 1 for an interesting example of a back design with two distinct versions).

The next image, below, shows a comparison of a standard Pneumatic No. 1 card with a promotional card advertising the Ide High Art Wheel. Following are images of a full Ide deck from the collection of Steve Bowling. The Ide deck, issued in red and blue, is either an unauthorized appropriation of a USPC design, or another early example of the Bicycle brand licensing its designs for other commercial enterprises (see the Krupp deck shown on the Racer No. 1 page). In either case, this is a very rare deck. Whether it is authorized or not, the Ide cards certainly have the quality and finish of Bicycle cards from the era. Interestingly, the Ide card design is based on the rare early version of Pneumatic No. 1 with the asymmetrical border.