Scopa

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During high school one of my classmates introduced me to Italian playing cards and in specifically to the glorious game of scopa. I immediately liked the artwork of the cards, with its denari (coins), coppe (cups), bastoni (clubs) and spade (swords). I've been playing the game ever since with my girlfriend and close friends. Whenever I go on a trip or a holiday, the deck of Italian cards always travels along. I've long had the idea of creating my own scopa deck, and talked about it many times with my friend Jan Hootsmans. We used to draw and write together during high school and we decided we're finally going to take this project seriously. Jan lives in Canada, so it's logistically a bit challenging, but we'll make it work.   
Above is the first step: a design for the coins, perfected in Photoshop from a sketch I did many years ago, when Jan was still living in Amsterdam.