
This card has three important connections with our theme. It is a "Thin", narrow card - it is primarily "White" in colour - and it was issued by "Duke".
These three words give us the very different persona which replaced "Ziggy Stardust", namely "the Thin White Duke". He was extraordinarily thin, and his orange hair made his face appear washed out, but in a good way. There was also a definite touch of the other world.
This character appeared at around the time of David Bowie`s "Young Americans" album, released in 1975, and there is almost certainly a connection to his very similar appearance in the science fiction film "The Man who Fell to Earth", released in cinemas in 1976.
This set was first listed by Jefferson Burdick in his "American Card Catalogue", as :
84 Playing Cards (53) double lion backs
a) with symbols in diagonal corners (Duke`s Cigarettes)
b) without diagonal corner symbols (Turkish Cross Cut)
He values them, all, irrespective of whether or not they have symbols, at twenty five cents a card.
It is next listed in our World Tobacco Issues Index as :
PLAYING CARDS (A). Sm. (53). "Double Lion" back. Firm`s name on Ace of Spades and Joker, other cards anonymous. Front (a) with (b) without symbols in diagonal corners. See X2/84. Ref. USA/84 ... D76-33
This is pretty much what Jefferson Burdick wrote, with the addition of the part about the Ace of Spades and the Joker. It also copies the identification of the mythical figure on the reverse, and continues to call it a "double lion", though I think it is much more like a gryphon than a lion After all, in dictionaries of mythology, a gryphon, o griffin, is described along the lines of either being a lion, with a bird`s head, wings, and legs, and prominent talons - or a lion for the most part, apart from having an eagle`s head and wings.
The listing of this set is slightly altered in the updated version of this book, to read :
PLAYING CARDS (A). Sm. (53). "Double Lion" back. Firm`s name on Ace of Spades (which varies between printings) and Joker, other cards anonymous. Front (a) with (b) without symbols in diagonal corners. Ref. USA/84 ... D900-310
You can see an Ace of Spades and a Joker online, courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Note that below the circular stamp for the museum is also stamped "Gift of J.R. Burdick". That Ace of Spades is the one which advertises, in three lines, "DUKE`S / CIGARETTES / ARE THE BEST" around the top of the spade - whilst the one not shown reads, also in three lines, "TURKISH CROSS-CUT / CIGARETTES / ARE THE BEST".
As far as "the symbol", this appears to the top left and bottom right, and, in the larger denominations, it means that the pip at the top left is only half complete, for there is a number, the number of the card, and a tiny symbol which is the same as the suit. In the case of the court cards it makes it appear like the frameline in those corners is missing.
By the way, do be aware that an awful lot of sets being sold online are marriages, and if you look closely you will see that some of the cards have the symbol to the side and others do not. Always check the cards, and a reputable seller will always be kind if you ask them to see better pictures.