Michael Siskin announced his new book on playing cards a few days ago. Here:
http://www.thechipboard.com/index.cgi/md/read/id/1778058/sbj/ex-i-have-good-news-and-bad-news/

I purchased it, received it and read it ... and like it. It's a good value for the $5 price via PayPal F&F.

If not obvious, it's sent via email from Siskin to you, as a pdf. You'll need Adobe Acrobat or equivalent to open and read, and store on your computer. The free Acrobat Reader is fine. You can print out the 33 pages if easier to read that way. But one of the benefits of online is you can enlarge the scans up to 4-5x or so without pixelating, which is a nice feature.

As to content, it's a good blend of narrative and pics. Concise, well written. Explains a lot of basic info. Think of it as a brief Playing Cards 101 survey course. There's more to cover, but a good primer on this category of casino collectibles.

Covers a lot regarding the card manufacturers and their terminology. I learned what "stingers" are -- a new term for me.

Just tossing out this mini-book review, in case you were considering purchasing it. (This is unsolicited review and the remarks above are my own, just FYI.)