Playing Card Deck

"Stick cards" or Gun Pai 棍牌. This type of deck contains money cards with three suits: 1-9 of cash, 1-9 of strings (of cash) and 1-9 of myriads (of strings) (wan). There are also three extra court cards, the White Flower card, the Old Thousand card, and the Wang Ying card, all with a red stamp printed on them. The Old Thousand card has 万千 Wan Qian at the top. The 王英 Wang Ying (a character from the Water Margin) card has a fish with the characer 王 Wang at the top and middle. The strings suit also has a fish motif. 王 Wang also appears on the 8 of myriads card. Pack of 120 rectangular playing cards. (3 suits of cards numbered 1-9 = 27 of which there are four sets = 108, plus 3 court cards which also have four sets, 3 x 4 = 12, 108 +12 = 120). The backs are a dark green-blue. The faces are printed in black on white within a rectangular border.

From Culin publication: "No. 9. - From Taiyuan, Shansi. Four packets of thirty; no jokers. Index marks for pips only. Designs very conventional. Total, 120." or "No. 17. - From Yu-tz'u, near Taiyuan, Shansi. Four packets of thirty each; no jokers. Index marks for pips only. Designs very conventional. Total, 120."