Alert! A large reward has been offered for the discovery of The Lost Heir!  In this 1893 card game by McLoughlin Bros. of New York, Police of 4 different cities are on search for a missing boy, The Lost Heir.  They must be careful, however, to find the correct boy, for if a player gets the ‘Wrong Boy’, he will docked.

There are different versions of The Lost Heir card game.  I actually have two of them; one which contains 36 total cards, and one which contains 48 total cards.  Both games play the same, and other than the different stated amount of cards, the directions read the same.  I’ve also seen versions from England and Canada.

The cards consist of 4 different cities, The Lost Heir, The Wrong Boy, and Two Blank city cards.  In the McLoughlin Bros. version of the game, the cities on the cards are New York, Boston, Philadelphia, and Chicago.  In games from out of the US, the cities are 4 from within their country).

No matter the cities or version, these ‘city card suits’ have the following ranks:  (top rank and down)

Mayor, Chief, Commissioner, Detective, Captain, Sergeant, and Policeman.

In games with more cards, the numbers move higher, but ranks stay the same. There are just more ‘Policeman’.

Here’s a game of 11 cards in the 4 suits. (Plus the additional 4 (The Lost Heir, The Wrong Boy, Two blanks)

The Lost Heir 1893 Mcloughlin bros cards

Here’s a game of 8 cards in the 4 suits. (Plus the additional cards).

The Lost Heir card game Mcloughlin Bros. New York

The Lost Heir is card tricking game.  The dealer shuffles the cards, deals them out, and at start of the game asks for a bid.  He asks, “How much am I offered for choice of Police to recover the Lost Heir?’ (Choice of Police being the ‘Bid’)

The player to the dealer’s left answers/bids first, based on his hand, and on his ability to call ‘Trump’ and take tricks. Bid moves around players.  

Whoever takes the bid, names ‘Trump’, and plays the first card.  He leads with Trump.

A person takes a trick by having the highest rank of suit, or ‘Trumping’. Each trick is worth one point.

The four special cards, The Lost Heir, The Wrong Boy, and the Two Blank City Cards, are played with the following considerations. 

These cards have no rank, so no value in taking tricks, unless ‘Trump’. 

The Lost Heir: (The Boy finely Dressed) This card counts as 5 points if taken in a trick.

The Wrong Boy: (The Boy in Rags) This card counts as NEGATIVE 3 if taken in a trick

The Two Blanks: If played in the same trick as either The Lost Heir or The Wrong Boy, the player taking the trick does NOT record the points for those cards.

Once all cards are played, tricks are counted, and special cards added or subtracted to the tally. Points are recorded on score sheet. First player or team to 25 (sometimes 40 or other, depending on version) wins the game.

Play a game, any game, today!

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