Group of Playing Cards

These bone playing cards are from a set made at Portchesrer Castle by the prisoners of war. The cards have inked decoration. Packs of playing cards would have been liable for stamp duy, which cost sixpence (or 5p) for each pack in 1711, increasing to seventeen shillings and sixpence (or 87p) in 1804. The money raised by the tax helped to pay for the Napoleonic and American wars.