The journey to this set was, to put it mildly, an ordeal.
I am, if nothing else, a
TRK guy. Like many of my
TRK fellow-travelers, I love scrowns. The truth is, many of us look down our noses at large crown TRKs, mostly, I suspect, because there aren't that many playable sets available. However, the scales fell from my eyes the day I met Glen O'Neil at his home workshop in early 2016. He showed me the beauty that lcrowns possess--hotstamps in particular--and after spending time browsing the old-school goodness and vintage fonts of 1940s and 1950s hotstamps, I have been enamored with the idea of a playable set ever since. Hell, I even mocked up a daydream cash set of large crowns, just for sh!ts and giggles, using colors and spot patterns that would evoke a 1940s card club. I already even had a name picked out--named for my daughter born in 2016. I already could envision the hotstamps: an art deco club name on one side, classic
TRK denominations on the other. Period-appropriate colors and spots.
Alas, my dream was for naught, as
TRK had gone the way of the dodo. Or so I thought. But then a little birdie told me in late 2017/early 2018 that
CPC had acquired the lcrown and scrown molds. I reached out to David Spragg, who gave me a non-denial confirmation, but wouldn't say anything more until October 2018, when he formally announced that he had the molds. I immediately called
@Johnny5 and, using some classic
TRK hotstamps as inspiration, commissioned him to give wings to my very specific dream. Which he did.
But only a month or so later, my dream was dashed, as David Spragg announced that, despite herculean efforts, there was no way for the lcrowns (or scrowns) to be stamped. My dream set was not to be. By then I had a fully formed set of mock-ups, with finished artwork, spot patterns and colors.
The artwork and mock-ups made for a great screen background on my iphone, since now, according to
CPC, that was the closest I'd ever come to my dream set.
And then along comes
@AK Chip, and a little post on PCF about buying a hotstamping machine. I PM'd him to see if he thought he could stamp lcrowns. He said he was game to try. I cannot stress this enough: without Pat's dedication and insane willingness to make this set happen, it never would have been made. Pat, you drink for free whenever I'm around.
Pat had
CPC send him some lcrown blanks to try stamping, and the results, while FAR from perfect, showed a tiny bit of promise. I asked Pat for his honest assessment about whether he could stamp the lcrowns, and he said he thought maybe he could, but he was honest--it was a risk and I'd need to buy many more blanks than I needed, due to stamping problems. So, I emailed
CPC and pulled the trigger in November 2019...on a maybe.
It took the better part of a year, with many unforeseen bumps in the road, but Pat (and J5) brought my dreams to reality. I cannot stress enough how hard it was for Pat to stamp these chips, and the amount of work involved. Again: without Pat's unbelievable dedication, this set could not exist. Thank you, Pat.
I also want to thank several folks who gave me sage advice and encouragement along the way:
@Psypher1000 (my design guru),
@AfterTheFact,
@bentax1978 and
@PAZ. My sincere gratitude to all of you.
=============================
tl;dr:
My fellow degens, I present to you my 1940s-cardroom-inspired large crown set:
the Vesper Clubs.
100 x 25c
200 x $1
400 x $5
200 x $20
100 x $100
(Pictured is the bulk of the set--Pat is still working feverishly on the remaining chips.)
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