Metal dies for cutting Spade pips

It is not clear for what trick these dies might have been used in manufacturing. One suggestion by writer David Britland is that they could have been used to cut pips needed for De Land’s Twister Trick. The effect of the trick is that the Ace of Spades and the Ace of Diamonds change places under apparently impossible conditions. Both cards can then be examined. The trick is written up in The Sphinx of October 1913, page 151. It seems that De Land did not claim invention of the trick, merely its perfection!