Buskers Exclusive Edition is the limited version of the deck that magician and designer Erik Mana dedicated to street performers. Mana worked the streets early in his career, at summer festivals where he shared the pitch with magicians, jugglers, musicians, mimes, escapologists and contortionists, and the project grew out of that experience. 1,000 decks of this edition were produced.

• PublisherMana Playing Card Company
• DesignErik Mana
• PrinterExpert Playing Card Company
• FinishMaster
• Print run1,000 decks

Design

The court cards are hand-illustrated and each one depicts a different kind of street performer. Compared with the Vintage edition of the same series, this version changes the aces and the jokers; the Ace of Spades carries the words “Exclusive Edition” beneath the name of the deck. The back shares the Vintage artwork, a repeating pattern that runs to the edge of the card and, seen up close, reveals the small symbol it is built from. Here it is printed in black with metallic silver ink.

The tuck box is black and understated, embossed and foil stamped. On the front is a silver circle containing four small symbols.

Manufacturing

It is printed by Expert Playing Card Company on solid card stock with the company’s Master finish, which is reserved for limited runs. The other edition in the series, Vintage, is an unlimited release made by the United States Playing Card Company with an Air Cushion finish.

History

The project was funded on Kickstarter in 2015. A first campaign was cancelled for lack of support; after it was relaunched with the two editions now named Vintage and Exclusive, 423 backers pledged 26,564 Canadian dollars against a goal of 15,000.

In short

A limited edition of 1,000 decks from Erik Mana’s Buskers series, with hand-illustrated court cards depicting street performers, a black back in metallic silver ink and printing by Expert Playing Card Company.