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Vietnam ace of spades card on brittle cardboard stock


willysproject
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willysproject

Hi,

 

Has anyone ever seen the type of card pictured on the right? It's as large as a 'Death From Above' card, and has a dark brown colored back side. The card isn't ordinary cardboard stock, but a very brittle material. If bended, I'm sure it would crack or break. Personally I believe it's original and have never seen anything like it...

 

kind regards,

Gerd V

 

post-549-1236946434.jpg

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Hi,

 

Has anyone ever seen the type of card pictured on the right? It's as large as a 'Death From Above' card, and has a dark brown colored back side. The card isn't ordinary cardboard stock, but a very brittle material. If bended, I'm sure it would crack or break. Personally I believe it's original and have never seen anything like it...

 

kind regards,

Gerd V

 

post-549-1236946434.jpg

 

When I was in Vietnam in 67-68, we were issued these as part of our Psy Ops kit. I still have a couple of them around somewhere but ours didn't look like this one.

 

Ours was printer on rather flimsy paper....nowhere near cardboard thickness. The front looked like a poor copy of a regular Ace of Spades card except that there was a skull and crossbones in the center of the large center spade. The back was cross-hatched with a phrase in Vietnamese on the back; something to the effect of "Rally to the government or die." Ours looked much like the ones in the lower left of post #3 above but the graphics easily have changed over time. Further, it's quite possible that various units had their own cards made locally.

 

I've never seen a real one with a grim reaper on it (at least not when I was there). If I ever come across one of mine again. I'll scan and post it.

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willysproject

Thanks for the reply and the help Bill! Yes, the variations that existed were numerous.

So far I've learnt that the material or card stock of this card with brown background is made of rice paper plant. But it's a good one! :-)

 

Kind regards,

Gerd

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Thanks for the reply and the help Bill! Yes, the variations that existed were numerous.

So far I've learnt that the material or card stock of this card with brown background is made of rice paper plant. But it's a good one! :-)

 

Kind regards,

Gerd

 

No problem. As I mentioned, the ones we had were made from what felt like rather cheap paper. They were not meant as souvenirs or "challenge" cards.

 

They were meant to be left on the bodies of NVA and VC that we killed in the field or placed in areas that the enemy moved through frequently as a psychological deterrent. When we attached them to a body, we used the big black safety pins that came with bandoleers of M-14 and M-16 ammo. They were sometimes pinned to the clothing of the dead but more often through the lop or cheek if they were still intact on the body.....sounds gruesome but that's just the way it was.

 

As such, they weren't intended for a lot of handling and the paper began to fall apart after being wet for a while. The Ace of Spades cards were just one of many psy-ops papers that came in the packs we took to the field with us to be left in areas frequented by the enemy.

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I've been lucky enough to pick up original death cards with good provenance from 2 or 3 different sources. All of them are identical: crudely printed on cheap Asian card stock. The paper is rough and has an off-white matte color to it. There are lots of obvious repros out there printed on glossy white card stock. If there are any convincing fakes I'm not aware of them, but I wouldn't be surprised. Here is an example from my collection:

 

post-265-1237122092.jpgpost-265-1237122111.jpg

 

The motto on the back of the card reads “Su’ chêt chóc dang chò dò các cán binh Viêt Công—Quy chánh hay la chêt!”. I've had this translated as: "Death is looking you over in this land, Viet Cong, and you need to give up or face death!”.

 

Bill

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Mercenary25

Also I've seen a photo of death card being tucked in between teeth of dead VC.

 

I see alot of re-prints of cards above in same texture and same type of paper on ebay.

 

Maybe some of you death card collectors can help me with it. I'm interested in buying some of death cards but however, I'm unsure value of them. I wonder how much it is for original? I remember one guy here tried to sell me nice rare deck of death cards for $300. O.o I wished I have that kind of money, however, I'm sure it's much cheaper when buying individuals?

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willysproject

Hi,

 

Yes that guy who had that deck for sale was me... They didn't sell, so I put the deck back in my collection. I have about 4 complete decks of Bicycle secret weapons, 2 that are still sealed. The value is price and demand I think...

 

Kind regards,

Gerd V

 

 

Also I've seen a photo of death card being tucked in between teeth of dead VC.

 

I see alot of re-prints of cards above in same texture and same type of paper on ebay.

 

Maybe some of you death card collectors can help me with it. I'm interested in buying some of death cards but however, I'm unsure value of them. I wonder how much it is for original? I remember one guy here tried to sell me nice rare deck of death cards for $300. O.o I wished I have that kind of money, however, I'm sure it's much cheaper when buying individuals?

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Mercenary25

As a tight-budget collector, I might would end up buying re-print ones just for display with my vietnam stuff. What would you think of it? Is it ok to use re-prints for an example? think.gif

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pwmiraldi67

I don't know about death cards but I do have 2 different types of calling cards; one came from John Burford and the other Frank benns Compan C Rangers

 

paul

post-2472-1237701552.jpg

post-2472-1237701599.jpg

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Hey willysproject.

I have a BICYCLE PLAYING CARD from the Vietnam war that has been personalised with Jump date and year

for a Para Jump in Vietnam.

If your interested I will find the camera and take a shot or two at it and post it? ;)

 

Regards// Martin

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hey gents.

Here are a photo of the Bicycle Playing card from my collection. Sorry for the poor quality, the only camera that I had access too was the one in my mobilephone pinch.gif .

 

 

Regards,, Martin

post-2634-1238932767.jpg

post-2634-1238932781.jpg

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