THE ODDITY
We found this deck in Brussels in 2003. It consisted of 32 cards, of which 3 pips had similar backs, but in red. Still we recognized the pattern immediately and bought the deck. At home we found that there was something odd about the designs, when compared to pictures in reference books, even though these were in b/w. In November 2011 we first saw the original deck (see page 1) offered on eBay, accompanied by good quality, colour pictures. It went at a price that we couldn't afford. But in June 2012 we were lucky to find an affordable deck during the yearly collectors trading day at the National Playing Card Museum in Turnhout, Belgium, so now we could make a full comparison. And this raised quite a few questions, but of course the main question was whether the deck here below was an earlier version or not.
Although the figures are the same, in detail the designs are different. It's apparent that the figures were re-designed, either in this deck or in the "original" deck. The name of Leonard Biermans isn't mentioned on the Queen of Spades, nor on any other card in the deck. The word "déposé" isn't on the Jack of Hearts anymore either, but has been added (twice) along the sides of the King of Diamonds. There's a black outline around each design.
The cards are made of a lesser quality card than the original deck, the backs have a generic design and the cards are somewhat smaller.
The suit symbols of the Spades and Clubs have the same embellishment as in the original deck.
A CLOSER COMPARISON BETWEEN THE DECKS IS ON PAGE 4.