Its many brands include Bicycle, Bee, Tally-Ho, Champion, Congress, Aviator, Aristocrat, Mohawk, Maverick, KEM, Hoyle and Fournier.

For decades the company was based in Norwood, Ohio, but as of 2009, the USPC is currently headquartered in the Cincinnati suburb of Erlanger, Kentucky.

[2] The company was founded in Cincinnati in 1867 as Russell, Morgan & Co. and originally specialized in printing posters for traveling circuses.

[7][8] Russell & Morgan then set out to fill their catalog with brands at price-points that sat between their existing lines.

[8] Business boomed and in 1891 Russell, Morgan, & Co. changed its name to the United States Printing Company.

[3] Morgan recruited a talented young inventor from New York named Samuel J. Murray, whose patented inventions increased the output of cards at the company's Norwood, Ohio plant fourfold and cut labor costs by 66 percent.

During World War II, USPCC manufactured spotter cards so soldiers could identify enemy units and cooperated with the U.S. Government in creating clandestine decks given to POWs; these cards could be moistened and peeled apart to reveal escape maps.

In May 2011, Marc Hill was named president of The United States Playing Cards Company.

In 1930, New York Consolidated, Andrew Dougherty, and Standard Playing Card Company were merged into a single subsidiary called Consolidated-Dougherty which continued to produce brands from all three predecessors, including Aristocrat, Bee, and Tally-Ho.

The USPCC would itself be acquired several times during its history, starting with Diamond International in 1969, Jessup & Lamont in 1982, and Frontenac in 1989.

In June 2019, Newell sold USPCC to Belgian card manufacturer Cartamundi, including its two plants in the United States and Spain.

[2][15] The USPCC currently produces cards in Erlanger, Kentucky and at its Fournier factory in Vitoria, Spain.

Introduced in 1927 in commemoration of Charles Lindbergh's trans-Atlantic flight in the Spirit of St. Louis, Aviator playing cards (stock No.

Bicycle cards are sold in poker and bridge widths, with additional deck configurations for use in other games such as pinochle, rummy, euchre, and canasta.

[18] The USPCC has released look-alike card designs under stock number 809 called Mandolin-backs and Maiden-backs for use in producing marked decks.

KEM cards are available to the consumer (usually at specialty game shops) with various back colors and designs in both poker and bridge sizes.

Streamline is a low-end brand, similar to Maverick, with a bordered monochrome back and a smooth plastic-coated finish.

When introduced, 500 brand playing cards came in Ivory or Air-Cushion finish and were available in four back designs - Bid, Full-House, Griffin, and Swastika (which was discontinued likely due to association with the Nazi Party).

Naipes Heraclio Fournier S.A. manufactures many different sets of playing cards, most for sale in Europe.

Since their acquisition by USPC, Fournier has also made use of the Bicycle brand name to distribute special-edition decks featuring unique artwork.

Arrow's founder, Theodore Regensteiner, helped popularized the Arrco brand by implementing a new easy-to-handle plastic coating for his decks.

True to the name, the Joker and Ace of Spades of these brands tended to feature American military imagery, which changed over the years of its production.

In World War I, the stock number was reused for Picket, another inexpensive brand which was again printed for sale to soldiers.

Congress cards are available in a wide assortment of pictorial back designs, and are typically housed in a velour covered box with a pull-out tray.

They are primarily produced for export along with Aladdin playing cards, for usage in humid regions of Asia.

Original production halted in 2009 with the closure of the Norwood factory due to quality control issues at the Kentucky plant and resumed sporadically after 2011.

202) was the highest-end brand of playing cards originally produced, featuring hunting and fishing themes.

They feature a "stud" horse on the tuck case, ace of spades, and jokers, as well as windmills on the card backs.

Stud playing cards of all ages are widely sought after by cardistry enthusiasts and magicians due to their excellent handling.

These playing cards, unlike most, were borderless, and featured a scene of Texas palmetto leaves, with a star in the center.