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I got this very interesting custom deck from a fellow collector living in Sweden. It is a souvenir deck for a historical water park Vesipuisto Lahnajärvi, which has been out of business for a long time now. The park was built in 1981 and located in Suomusjärvi (part of Salo 2009-) between Helsinki and Turku. History of this deck is a mystery! I haven't been able to get any knowledge of the year(s) these were made. Also the name of the designer stays elusive. They are possibly printed by a Finnish company Paletti which was some years ago sold to another company Lehtipiste. Nowadays they don't have a clue that the company might have been printing playing cards in the past (I asked). Even the people working in the modern Lahnajärvi recreational area don't seem to know much.

Cards have the same style than Turku Castle deck - they are even cut to the same shape! Court cards are still noticeable different. The deck is very thick. So thick actually that it doesn't really fit into its plastic box.

Any info on this deck would be highly appreciated!

Awesome looking deck.

It's kinda funny that this country of ours which produced almost no custom designed decks of playing cards in it's history, with just a handful of exceptions, one of those decks would be from some random out of business waterpark

Well designed courts for sure, seem to depict people from early 1800's so maybe the Kings are high ranking military officals in the war where Russia conquered Finland from Sweden? I'll be on the lookout when visiting thrift stores here.

Räpylätassu wrote: ↑Thu Apr 22, 2021 9:06 am It's kinda funny that this country of ours which produced almost no custom designed decks of playing cards in it's history, with just a handful of exceptions, one of those decks would be from some random out of business waterpark

Well designed courts for sure, seem to depict people from early 1800's so maybe the Kings are high ranking military officals in the war where Russia conquered Finland from Sweden? I'll be on the lookout when visiting thrift stores here.

To think about it that is kind of funny. Back design isn't the greatest by the way, but maybe nostalgic to some. I haven't visited the place so couldn't tell. Courts are the main attraction for sure and they're great.

Speaking of drift stores I've been wanting to investigate for some time, but never really got to it...