2nd Use French Playing Card dated 1730's - 3 Sols, No. 226 Appel de Gand - France

2nd Use Playing Card. Front and back shown. The face of the card is definitely in the period between 1740 and 1760 pre French Revolutionary . Stencil coloured. The currency unit in France at this time was: Livre, Sols (12 sols = 1 Livre) and Dernier (20 Dernier = 1 Sol). Conclusion is that the writing on the back refers to the content of some item to which the playing card was attached (thus the pin marks) and the value of the item was written in Sols on the card. ‘appel de Gand’ is on some examples. Some cards have been used by the Court of Appeal in Ghent (Court d'appel in Gand), on the cards in French shorted as 'appel de gand'. The text deals not with currency but time: 'trois sois' means '3 o'clock’.

Conclusion is the cards have been attached by a pin to documents of law cases that were ordered according to agenda (schedule) of the day. The numbers on the cards refer to the number of the law cases. (Van Diggele) Some cards have the following values: 1 at 2 sols, 2 at 3 sols and 1 at 4 sols the fifth card states ‘fordre’ of the same series. Although they cannot be considered numismatic items, I think as monetary playing cards, they are extremely interesting.