Menko Madness: Show Me the Money

Before you get any ideas, no, these menko aren't really worth a lot... I don't think. Really, non-sport menko aren't very valuable. But there's a theme in a few of these sets.

 The first set card has  a dinosaur and playing card symbols on the front. This has silver borders. The back has a circle with a flying machine and janken symbol, and the bottom half is a complete loss to me aside from the very long menko number.

 This next card is designed like money. I'm calling this the Nippon Ginko set due to the money name on the back. The left-hand kanji is the value of the money in Japanese characters. The text across the top and on the right side refer to this being a children's toy.

 My card back is mis-printed, but the money value here is obviously different from the value on the front.  The typical menko number and janken hand appear on the back.

 This card is similar to the Maruta cards I showed yesterday; I guess you could classify this as the same set. Ultraman makes an appearance on the front in artwork style, with a Boeing B52 plane on the back.

 These are very similar to the Maruta sets, but there is no manufacturer symbol. Except the one rogue Maruta card (top-right) that got into the stack. Some of these have silver borders (bottom right has white). The ink color varies, too.

 As compared to the Nippon Ginko, this is the Kodomo Ginko (Children's Bank) set. The value is 1000 yen for each card on the front and back, so at least they match. The fronts are basically identical, except for printing quality, The menko number is on the front, but the back has a rock-paper-scissors symbol. Note the two ink colors here.

 This set carries the Marusho symbol on the back with a hero cartoon art. The copyright line says "Pii Production" but I don't know the reference.

 This menko somehow ended up upside down. The front has a copyright across the bottom (look at the top of the card) while the back tells you how to play a card stacking game. The back identifies this as a "Lotte Game Card" and is probably card #7.

 Trains are extremely popular here, so it shouldn't be surprising that there are train menko cards. The back has details about the train as well as the usual menko number and janken symbol.

 This set can be dubbed the Television Quiz set. Fronts have images from popular TV shows and the back has an image inside a television which you are supposed to identify.

 Finally, these are "quiz" card menkos. Most of these have silver borders and appear to come from the same set, while the white one in the middle is probably from another issue.

They are quiz cards because the back has a quiz in Japanese. For those of you following along at home, these are the same backs as JCM 58 (1975-76 Flag Front). So the issue date is probably around then.

Menko Madness: Karuta Flying Backs and Kankan Cartoon Duel Backs

The first set of menkos are easier to explain than the second. So let's get to it!

Both menko "sets" have a range of drawn images on the front; the second set has a couple colorized images from live action TV show photographs.

 All of these cards appear to have been manufactured by Maruta; their logo appears at the bottom left of the card back. I believe the top cards might be from four completely different sets; the images have different styles and the back ink color varies a bit from card to card. I really like the top-left card here, which reminds me of old textbook illustrations. The fronts of the remaining eight cards have a silver border instead of white and use similar background and art styles, so I believe they could be rom the same set.

Backs have an image of a flying machine along with its name at the top. A janken symbols is in the lower-left corner of the image, with the manufacturer's symbol and menko number at the bottom. Note that menko backs can appear on any card and the same card can have different backs; these backs were used for multiple sets or issues.

Many of the cards in this group have an interesting tiger-headed character. And America makes an appearance too! Both photographic images appear to be from Ultraman. Backs again have a Japanese term at the top that should relate to the image in the center. That image has two cartoon characters in a design similar to playing card face cards. Those images have two printer's marks (the same mark on both sides) a swell as duplicate janken symbols. A long menko number is printed at the bottom. Green and blue backs appear here, and the two photographic-front cards have different back ink colors.

This lot is similar to the Kankan cards I posted about recently; Engel's guide for the 1972 Kankan baseball menko set mentions a second type of backs with opposing cartoon characters. Some of the cards do match the printer's symbol in Engel's example picture, so that's a good sign that these were made by Kankan. Others carry the Marusho mark, and one card has a mark I can't identify yet.

We're nearing the end of this menko run!

Menko Madness: 1972 Kankan Menko and 1976 Viking Set

Today, I thought I might speed things up and show you a couple sets. Both of these can be linked to sets listed in Engel's most recent guide, though neither set indicates the existence of non-sport cards.

As always, it's possible that baseball and non-sport cards were issued together, or sold separately but were issued at or around the same time.

 The fronts of the Kankan menko have the typical white borders. They feature two images, just like the baseball cards; a front image towards the bottom and a back image near the top. Photographic images are colorized.

 The baseball cards can be found with green ink (common) or brown ink (rare). A Japanese word or expression is at the top in a banner, a bat shape is on the left with a baseball expression, and on the right is baton-shaped box with a soccer expression. The center has a playing card number over a janken symbol, and the menko number is at the bottom next to a manufacturer's symbol. Note that the symbol on menko 96103 and 41015 matches the symbol found in Engel's guide. The symbol on card 20162 appears to be Marusho, and I haven't done any research for the remaining two numbers. The back colors vary slightly from printer's mark to printer's mark, too. I'm pretty confident these were created at the same time, but might have been printed, distributed, or marketed by different companies.

 The 1976 Viking set has a similar concept to the Kankan set. Two images, one on top and one on bottom, fill the front. Most of the cards I have seem to feature the same show.

Backs all have a viking-like design that I think might be related to (but not identical to) Kamen Rider or other popular hero shows of the era. Again, there are multiple colored backs, and again the mark in the circle varies. Engel's guide mentions that the baseball cards have black ink backs. A janken symbol and a long menko number are at the bottom.

I think it's important to note that backs might have been "recycled" from card set to card set. And a series of card backs or even entire card sets might have been sold to various printers to use, at least in the 1970s as menko cards were losing popularity to Calbee and Bikkuriman. Dates here are based on Engel's guide for baseball card sets; these sets were probably produced around the same time.