For those that don’t know, here’s a quick history on Jerry’s Nugget Playing Cards and some info on how to get some:
“J Nuggs”, as they are often referred to, are renowned world-wide as quite possibly the most sought after deck in the last 50 years (possibly longer). Right around 1970, Jerry Lodge and Jerry Stamis commissioned the United States Playing Card Company (the same company that makes Bicycle playing cards) to print a deck for their casino. Using a paper stock that was only used for two years, a varnish mixture that is no longer manufactured (due to environmental laws) and a now obsolete cotton roller emboss process to print them, the first and only run of blue and red oil derrick design Jerry’s Nugget Playing Cards was born. Unfortunately, once printed, the cards never made it to the playing tables due to their highly simplistic design which spawned the fear of them being easily reproduced. Although the original amount of J Nugg decks produced is unknown, all printed decks were shipped to storage where they remained for years. At one point, these decks were removed from storage and sold at the Jerry’s Nugget Casino gift shop for $0.50.
Many years later, magicians started to take notice of the Jerry’s Nugget playing cards mainly due to the claims that they strengthened your hands while breaking them in since they were so tough, however, once you had broken them in, you had a deck that would last a long time. A major plus was also that they held their form well over time.
The deck stock held at the casino gift shop lessened and lessened until the summer of 1999 when all the J Nuggs had been sold out. Due to their highly rare nature, counterfeiters started selling decks on eBay for loads of money and the purchasers were disappointed when they found that their (upwards of) $500 deck was a fake. There is even a “Limited Edition Black Jerry’s Nugget” deck floating around on eBay… in case you were wondering… also fake.
So now that you know a little more about J Nugg’s you want some right? But where can you get a deck? Although very difficult to acquire, it’s not completely impossible. The most reliable and best place to get them is by going to www.LeeAsher.com. Lee’s website is the only place that you will not only get an authentic Jerry’s Nugget deck BUT you will also receive a Certificate of Authenticity! Every year, Lee sells a small number of these decks using tiered pricing and every year the price changes. The best way to be in-the-know about up to date J Nuggs pricing, their availability and other special offers, is to sign up for Lee’s “Asher’s Announcements” newsletter on his website.
If you’re interested, 60 Jerry’s Nugget Decks will be sold today at 4pm EST / 1pm PST on www.LeeAsher.com. The link is:
http://www.leeasher.com/store/playing_cards/jerrys_nugget_cards.html
You can also follow Lee on Twitter here: http://twitter.com/LeeAsherMagic
Speaking of J Nuggs and Lee Asher, Lee had a contest recently to come up with a caption for an image of Jerry’s Nugget’s. Although I didn’t win, I had a lot of fun creating a few captions… and by a few I mean 77. Some of the captions were very lame and some were very funny (at least to me). I hope you get a kick out of some of them as well. Here is the link:
http://photos.heyzencontreras.com/Magic-Related/Jerrys-Nugget-Caption-Contest/
Enjoy and if you decide to try to purchase a deck of J Nuggs for yourself, good luck!