Thimble-rig is a common con in which a conjuror challenges members of the public to place best on finding a pea which has been placed under one of several cups or thimbles, which have then been shuffled around on a table. The cheat lies in the fact that the pea is palmed and not placed under the cup at all, allowing the conjuror to win even when the correct cup has been identified. Research Thimble-Rig
Mary Carleton was an English confidence trickster, bigamist, robber, playwright and actress. She was born in 1626 and died in 1663. Married, with two children, and living in Canterbury she became bored with her domestic life and went to Dover where she married a rich German surgeon. Charged with bigamy she fled to Germany and assumed the identity of a German princess. She subsequently tricked many men out of money and valuables, worked as an actress with a German travelling stage company, performing in plays she had written about her own criminal exploits. After returning to England she continued to cheat, trick and rob men of money and valuables until l she was some time later tried for bigamy at the Old Bailey and hanged at Tyburn in 1663. Research Mary Carleton
Cheat (also known as 'Bullshit' and 'I Doubt It') is a card game for between two and ten players. One standard pack of 52 cards is used. All the cards are dealt out to the players; some may have more than others, but not by much. The object is to get rid of all your cards. Select at random who should go first and continue clockwise. On the table is a discard pile, which starts empty. A turn consists of discarding one or more cards face down on the pile, and calling out their rank. The first player must discard aces, the second player discards two, the next player threes, and so on. After tens come Jacks, then Queens, then Kings, then back to Aces, etc. Since the cards are discarded face down, you do not in fact have to play the rank you are calling. For example if it is your turn to discard sevens, you may actually discard any card or mixture of cards; in particular, if you don' t have any sevens you will be forced to play some other card or cards. Any player who suspects that the card(s) discarded by a player do not match the
rank called can challenge the play by calling 'Cheat!', 'Bullshit!' or 'I doubt it!' (depending on what you call the game). Then the cards played by the challenged player are exposed and one of two things happens: 1. if they are all of the rank that was called, the challenge is false, and the challenger must pick up the whole discard pile; 2. if any of the played cards is different from the called rank, the challenge is correct, and the person who played the cards must pick up the whole discard pile. After the challenge is resolved, play continues in normal rotation: the player to the left of the one who was challenged plays and calls the next rank in sequence. The first player to get rid of all their cards and survive win any challenge resulting from their final play wins the game. If you play your last remaining card(s), but someone challenges you and the cards you played are not what you called, you pick up the pile and play continues. Research Cheat
Contraband was a bluffing family card-based game produced by Pepys Games in the UK between the 1950s and 1970's, based upon the classic playing card game of 'Cheat'. Contraband used proprietary cards, and currency tokens in a game where the object was to smuggle goods - represented pictorially upon the cards - past the 'customs official' - one of the players. Research Contraband
Abbreviations
Research Humbug
