Oath Playing Cards presents Venexiana Gold

Venexiana Gold is an exclusive, limited edition deck from Oath Playing Cards   designed and produced by Lotrek.

The company, formerly known as Half Moon Playing Cards, was created by the pair Lotrek and Melania. Oath Playing Cards launched this deck with a successful Kickstarter campaign, which raised enough in just a few days to fund the deck’s creation.

It’s special because the company only produced 212 of these decks, making them a highly sought-after collector’s item. A 100 of the decks went directly to its Kickstarter funders, leaving 112 on the open market.

Venexiana Gold is based on a previous deck, also called Venexiana, but embossed with gold ink, with golden foil for the card backs to make it more of an exclusive.

Original copies of Venexiana Gold retailed at $400+.

Deck Details

Venexiana Gold came out in 2014, launching through a successful Kickstarter campaign.

It’s rare for two reasons: only 212 of the decks were ever made, and 100 of them sold out to people backing the original Kickstarter campaign.

This makes it one of the most limited runs in playing card history.

The design features classic card images, but takes most of its inspiration from 1800s Venice and Venetian art. Card backs feature an elaborate, royal-driven golden design – with real gold. Similarly, the card faces include real golden ink.

The name “Venexiana” means Venetian in Italian.

The name is also a possible nod to a 1536 classic Venetian play — or, if you want to think of something more modern, there’s also an Italian band called “La Venexiana” from 1995.

While you can still find some of these decks at auction, it’s especially rare because you’ll find few owners who are willing to part with their decks if they own one.

Creators embraced the best features for the Venexiana Gold deck; reviews say it handles like a regular Bicycle deck, known for smooth and featherlight handling.

About the Creators

Venexiana released under Half Moon Playing Cards, billed as one of the most promising companies in the field of custom playing card production in 2013. The company rebranded as Oath Playing Cards in 2016.

Oath Playing Cards creates luxury and high-end playing cards, with many of their decks only released as limited editions. The company consists of Lotrek and Melania, graduates of the Athens School of Fine Arts – also where their company’s hub is based.

Their tagline is ”luxury, beauty, innovation” and perfectly describes the decks they produce. The same company also created other limited edition decks such as Grotseque. The company is particularly known for their high-end designs: Lotrek and Oath also won the Inaugural Diamond Award for Deck of the Year (2017).

Venexiana, Venexiana Dark, and Venexiana Gold are all inspired by Venice, the Canal City, while staying close to classic Bicycle card designs.

Venexiana Gold: The Original Kickstarter

The original Kickstarter for Venexiana Gold pledged exactly $35, 317 to bring this deck into existence. According to the original Half Moon Playing Cards (HMPC) kickstarter page, it took 678 backers to reach this goal.

Venexiana Dark

There’s more to Venexiana: the follow-up deck called Venexiana Dark.

This time, the Venetian-inspired deck takes a turn through the 18th Century. It’s far more gothic than the original deck, taking its inspiration from things that go bump in the night – dark curls, impressive spirals, and it’s pretty evocative.

According to the description, “Venexiana Dark features a series of obscure and marginal characters who complete the picture of this haunting city. Thieves, assassins, courtesans, wicked noblemen and masters of deception are all on board…”

Other Works

Oath Playing Cards, with Lotrek and Melania, are rooted in the professional playing card community.

They’re also known for working on the ICONS Playing Cards series, which isn’t quite as exclusive as Venexiana Dark, but close.

Currently, they also showcase an impressive deck called The Golden Rule. They’ll only make 900 of these, with a limited-edition deck that’s based around Shakespeare.

They’re also working on a new, rare deck based around Hieronymus Bosch’s art.

Surreal and rare: just like Oath Playing Cards.

You can follow some of Oath Playing Cards projects on Kickstarter here.

Rare Decks Series

Rare decks of cards are special collections that often include hard-to-find editions, old cards, and uniquely designed sets. People collect these cards because they look beautiful, have interesting stories behind them, and sometimes become more valuable over time. These decks aren’t just for playing games; they’re also pieces of art and history that can be enjoyed for their uniqueness and the special stories they tell.

In our Rare Decks series, we’ll share what makes these decks so special and why collectors are so passionate about them.
Click here to view other articles in this series.