Jerry’s Nugget, fake or real ?

Here are the famous 24 ways to distinguish good Jerry’s Nugget from bad ones.

Note : on these photos we can distinguish two types of fakes. The ones i call Indonesian ones (because my magic shop told me they were coming from this country) which are probably the “reprints” we can find on ebay. Not so bad cards but absolutely not similar to the real ones. And the other type are called the chinese fakes which are almost perfect fakes with very bad paper. They were probably only produced to be sold as real sealed decks, not to be played with. They even look older than real ones !

Note 2 : There is now a third version of fakes. These fakes have a very long flap, a real stamp but the box is bigger than real ones, cards are not good and Fonts are not the good ones on the stamp and the box.

Note 3 : march 2016 – I have started adding information about green Jerry’s Nugget and Chicken Nugget which are not really fakes but only tribute to Jerry’s Nugget.

Note 4 : march 2016 – It seems there is 52 decks of Yellow Jerry’s Nugget printed on Bicycle recently. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWDEFb5lXrk

Note 5 : july 2016 – 23th tip added. And Duy Quang Vu discovered a Magic Shop selling tribute decks for Jerry’s Nugget in new colors. I will add them in the list as soon as I get new information. See the link here

Note 6 : august 2016 – 24th tip added thanks to Mads Schatz-Jakobsen

Note 7 : june 2018 – small modifications

More information on Lee Asher’s site

On this page we will sum up the features of each version of fakes :

* Fake 1 : Chinese decks which mimic almost all features with very bad cards : only created to fool people.
* Fake 2 : Indonesian decks (or chinese maybe) sold in most magic shops. Far from the real ones with standard to low cards
* Fake 3 : New version of fakes easy to find on ebay or magic shops. Far from the real ones with standard to low cards
* Fake 4 : Black version of Jerry’s Nugget. They did not exist in 1970. They are always fakes.
* Green JN : Green version Jerry’s Nugget created by AFPCC. They are not really fakes but more a piece of art and tribute. Only 35 decks available
* Chicken : Parody of Jerry’s Nugget created by Hanson Chien and a tribute to Jerry’s Nugget mixed with a McDonalds theme. Available in Blue, Red and Black with trick cards (some of them from the first release show Jerry’s Nugget text). They are also available in White.
* Yellow : I have no details except a video : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWDEFb5lXrk Not included
* Kacio : Small print of very special Jerry’s Nugget Tribute. Not included in this survey because they are very different.

Updated on june 28th 2018 (small modifications)

Of course, you can contact me for further details and questions. Or if you want to sell cards, I’m always looking for new real, fake, or colored Jerry’s Nugget cards !

1- The box is yellow-ish
The box is yellow-ish.

A real deck between 2 indonesian fakes

Fake chinese decks

Real ones : White to very light yellow
Fake 1 : Yellow
Fake 2 : White
Fake 3 : White
Fake 4 : Black
Green : White
Chicken : White

♥ : helps spot sealed decks
2 - The stamp is not in the middle of the box
The stamp is glued at the left of the box

Real one, stamp at the left

Fake one with stamp centered

Fake 3 : Stamp centered

Real one : stamp is on the left of the front of the box
Fake 1 : stamp is a bit on the left
Fake 2 : stamp is on the middle
Fake 3 : stamp is on the middle
Fake 4 : stamp is on the middle
Green : ?? is there a stamp ?
Chicken : stamp is a bit on the left

♥ : helps spot sealed decks
3 - The stamp is not a sticker, it is a real stamp
The real one has a real stamp, the fake chinese one has a sticker.

Fake chinese sticker

Real one, not a sticker

Fake 3 : Real stamp

Real one : stamp is a stamp
Fake 1 : stamp is a sticker
Fake 2 : stamp is a sticker
Fake 3 : stamp is a stamp
Fake 4 : stamp is a sticker
Green : ??
Chicken : stamp is a stamp
4 - The font on the stamp is not sharp and has spaces, the color is strong blue
Real one, glued stamp

Fake sticker

Fake 3 : Stamp centered

Real one : stamp is strong blue with a specific large and unprecise font
Fake 1 : stamp is strong blue with a narrow font
Fake 2 : stamp is light blue with a narrow font
Fake 3 : stamp is strong blue with a narrow font
Fake 4 : stamp is strong blue with a narrow font
Green : ??
Chicken : stamp is the same color but the font is more precise than real ones

♥ : helps spot sealed decks
5 - The font of Jerry’s Nugget is not the same on edge of fake boxes
See a real one between two fake indonesians

Real one between two fakes

Real ones : Good
Fake 1 : To be checked
Fake 2 : Bad
Fake 3 : Bad
Fake 4 : Not bad
Green : Good
Chicken : Good but Chicken Nugget instead of Jerry’s Nugget

♥ : helps spot sealed decks
6 - The opening flap is longer on real ones than on fakes
The opening flap must be longer than in most modern boxes. It is not the case with bad fakes.

Fake on the left, real on the right

Fake 3 : Long flap

Real ones : Long flap
Fake 1 : Long flap
Fake 2 : Short flap
Fake 3 : Very long flap, harder than real one
Fake 4 : Short flap
Green : Long flap
Chicken : Long flap
7 - There is no number on the flap on real ones but there is a whiter square
There is no number on the opening flap. It is only on chinese fakes. On real boxes, there is a whiter square on the flap just where the stamp is.

Fake one with red number on flap

Real deck, whiter square on flap

Real ones : No number, whiter square
Fake 1 : Number
Fake 2 : Nothing
Fake 3 : Nothing
Fake 4 : Nothing
Green : Nothing
Chicken : Nothing
8 - When you can see cards, the faces have vertical lines
When you can see cards, the biggest way to prove they are real is the face : it has vertical lines whereas the back has squares (just like newer cards)

Real one, with vertical lines on face

Real ones : Vertical lines

Fake chinese, squares on face

Fake 2 : Squared face

Fake 3 : Squared face

Real ones : Lines on face
Fake 1 : Squares
Fake 2 : Squares
Fake 3 : Squares
Fake 4 : Squares
Green : Squares
Chicken : Squares
9 - The Ace of Spade has the lot number in blue
The Ace of Spade has the lot number in blue. The fake indonesian are really bad with no different colors whereas fake chinese are almost perfect copies.

Real joker, text in blue

Fake joker

Real, Fake 1, Fake 2, Fake 3

Real ones : Text in blue (smaller)
Fake 1 : Text in blue
Fake 2 : Big font and black text
Fake 3 : Big font and black text
Fake 4 : Big font and inversed black and white
Green : ??
Chicken : Text in blue small but M 2015
10 - The Joker has small and simple font
Joker : Real, Fake 1, Fake 2, Fake 3

Real Joker – Fake 3 Joker

Real Joker – Fake 2 Joker

Real Joker – Fake 1 Joker

Real ones : Simple font
Fake 1 : Simple font
Fake 2 : Big font for Joker and different graphics
Fake 3 : Almost good but font is different
Fake 4 : Big font
Green : Simple font
Chicken : Simple font (but different text)
11 - The color is bright
On the left is a real one, vivid color and on the right you can see a chinese fake one, almost identical but least vivid

Left : real one, Right : fake chinese

Left : real one, Right : fake chinese
12 - The box contains 52 cards + 2 jokers
The real ones and the chinese fakes contains only 52 cards + 2 jokers while the indonesian fakes contain 1 card with blank face and one totally blank card.

Fake 2 – Extra cards

Fake 3 – Extra cards

Real ones : 52+2 jokers
Fake 1 : 52+2 jokers
Fake 2 : 52+2 jokers + 1 blank card + 1 blank face
Fake 3 : 52+2 jokers + 1 blank card + 1 blank face
Fake 4 : 52+2 jokers + 1 blank card + 1 black face
Green : 52+2 jokers
Chicken : 52+2 jokers + 1 Chicken/Jerry card + 1 other color back + 1 double back with nuggets
13 - Unique smell of cards
I can’t show you that but real Jerry’s Nugget’s cards smell. Even 40 years later, they have a specific chemical smell. It is not the same as new USPCC cards nor the same as vintage Golden Nugget.

Real ones : Chemical smell, unique
Fake 1 : No specific smell
Fake 2 : No specific smell
Fake 3 : No specific smell
Fake 4 : No specific smell
Green : ??
Chicken : A bit like EPCC smell
14 - Crispy sound
The sound when you shuffle is not the same as with new cards because of the stock and the special coating.

Real ones : Crispy sound
Fake 1 : Normal bicycle sound
Fake 2 : Normal bicycle sound
Fake 3 : Normal bicycle sound
Fake 4 : Normal bicycle sound
Green : ??
Chicken : Hard sound
15 - 1970 secret
With the genuine deck, if you cut the box, you can see a 1970 stamp. On the fake chinese there is a bad stamp with 2010 on it. On the indonesian, nothing appears.

1970 secret

Real ones : 1970
Fake 1 : 1970 – 2010
Fake 2 : Nothing
Fake 3 : Nothing
Fake 4 : Nothing
Green : ??
Chicken : Probably 1970
16 - The box is thinner than other decks
The box of Real Jerry’s Nugget is thinner than other decks. Some people say that normal deck are 18mm thin while JN are 16mm thin.

Other vintage decks like Friars Club also used thinner boxes.

Real deck vs Fake 1 deck

Real deck vs Fake 2 deck

Real deck vs Fake 3 deck

Real ones : Thin box
Fake 1 : Normal box
Fake 2 : Normal box
Fake 3 : Normal box
Fake 4 : Normal box
Green : Thick box
Chicken : Thin box (not as thin as real ones)

♥ : helps spot sealed decks
17 - White borders are smaller than on other decks
Jerry’s Nugget’s cards are white bordered. But the white border is smaller than most of other decks of the USPCC.

And they are smaller on real deck than on fake decks.

Real, Fake 1, Fake 2, Fake 3

Real, Fake 1, Fake 2, Fake 3

Real ones : Small white borders
Fake 1 : Small white borders
Fake 2 : Large borders
Fake 3 : Large borders
Fake 4 : Large borders
Green : Small white borders
Chicken : Small white borders
18 - On sealed boxes, the cellophane is closed by a red strip
On real decks, the cellophane is closed by a red strip. On most fakes, the strip is transparent just like the cellophane.

Cellophane and red strip on real deck

Cellophane and strip on fake 3 deck

Real ones : Red strip
Fake 1 : Red Strip
Fake 2 : Transparent cellophane
Fake 3 : Transparent cellophane
Fake 4 : Transparent cellophane
Green : ??
Chicken : Red strip

♥ : helps spot sealed decks
19 - The color part of the back has squared corners
On real decks, the colored part of back of the cards has squared corners. On most fakes, this part has rounded corners.

Real, Fake 1, Fake 2, Fake 3

Real, Fake 1, Fake 2, Fake 3

Real ones : Squared corners
Fake 1 : Squared corners
Fake 2 : Rounded corners
Fake 3 : Rounded corners
Fake 4 : Rounded corners
Green : Squared corners
Chicken : Squared corners
20 - Decks are red or blue, no other color
The real Jerry’s Nugget decks can only be found in two colors : Blue or Red.
You can usually find Black cards on Ebay. The deck is black, the back is black and the faces are in inversed color black.
Orange decks are less usual but can be found.
Green decks have been printed a very limited edition by fans of Jerry’s Nugget. They are extremely rare.

Black Jerry’s Nugget deck

Black Jerry’s Nugget deck

Real ones : Blue or Red
Fake 1 : Blue or Red
Fake 4 : Black
Green : Green
Chicken : Blue or Red or Black or White

♥ : helps spot sealed decks
21 - Dribble sound
Real Jerry’s Nugget cards, thanks to their stock and finish, make a specific sound when dribbling. It is the same sound as most of the decks of the 70’s but different from the new decks.

Real ones : Vintage sound
Fake 1 : Usual new sound
Fake 2 : Usual new sound
Fake 3 : Usual new sound
Fake 4 : Usual new sound
Green : ??
Chicken : Nice sound
22 - Thinner cards
The cards of a real Jerry’s Nugget deck are thinner than most of the new playing cards. At least, thinner than all the fake Jerry’s Nugget.

Real vs Fake 1

Real vs Fake 2

Real vs Fake 3

Real ones : Thin
Fake 1 :
Fake 2 :
Fake 3 :
Fake 4 : Normal
Green : Thick
Chicken : Thin
23 - Stamp tip for sealed decks
When you have a brand new, perfectly sealed deck of Jerry’s Nugget, it is difficult to prove the authenticity of the cards. You can’t touch cards, you can’t use most of the tips I have given you before.
But there is one thing that will help you tell that it’s the real thing. And it’s something tricky.

On real 1970 stamps, the separations are not perfect. Sometimes you have more of the small hole at the left and an almost straight line at the right. Sometimes it’s the opposite. But I have never seen a perfectly cut stamp on a reall Jerry’s Nugget (or Golden Nugget from this era)

Real stamp – Different edges of perforation

Totally badly cut stamp, but real one

Left is straight, right is perforated, it’s the real McCoy !

Real ones : Not the same perforations on each edge of the stamp
Fake 1 : Good
Fake 2 : Good
Fake 3 : Good
Fake 4 : Good
Green : Good
Chicken : Perfect

♥ : helps spot sealed decks
24 - Only one way to open the box
Real decks can only be opened from the top. Some other fakes can be opened from the top and the bottom.

Some boxes opens both ways, not the real ones

Real ones : Only at the top
Fake 1 : Only at the top
Fake 2 : Top and bottom
Fake 3 : Only at the top
Fake 4 : Only at the top
Green : ?
Chicken : Top and bottom

♥ : helps spot sealed decks