- THE INTERNATIONAL PATTERN & ITS ANOMALIES -

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Belgium has a long tradition in the making of playing cards. They have always supplied these to the Dutch market too. In the early 20th century most of the major Belgian card makers were to be found in Turnhout and in the 1960's there were several take-overs, until the last 3 major card makers decided to work together in a new cooperation: Carta Mundi was founded in 1973. This firm is now a world player in the playing cards field and has taken over several large European card makers, like the VASS from Germany or Müller from Switzerland. Carta Mundi also has a plant in the USA now and has recently taken over the Brazilian card maker Copag too.

The deck here below is a somewhat older one. The design is close to the original, but done in a vivid way. The courts seem to come to life more. The middle part is used to promote certain companies or industries, but the names on the banners are single and do not have a second, mirrored version. This makes it only possible to play in one way and makes the rest of the mirrored design useless. The deck has French indices and the Aces have the (French) denomination of a "1". They also do not fit the pattern rules, because the Ace of Spades doesn't get the extra embellishment: they are all illustrated equally.

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