A diminutive deck of playing cards has been officially certified as the smallest ever made, a feat of meticulous design and engineering. Each card in the record-breaking deck measures a mere 5 mm by 3.6 mm, roughly the size of a grain of rice. This incredible achievement is more than two times smaller than the previous record holder and an astonishing 250 times smaller than a standard playing card.
The record for the “smallest pack of playing cards” was achieved by Rob Hallifax (UK) in London on March 31, 2024. Hallifax, a product designer and engineer, took on the challenge as a New Year’s resolution.
Hallifax, who had previously created and successfully launched four other sets of playing cards on Kickstarter, faced unique challenges in this latest endeavor. He had to source a professional printer capable of handling the exceptionally thin card stock and then find a way to cut the tiny cards with the necessary precision. “Getting accurate cuts at such small sizes was a challenge,” he recalled. “At that size, 1 mm is over a quarter of the width of the cards.” He ultimately settled on using a laser cutter to achieve the required accuracy.
The final deck includes 52 standard playing cards, two jokers, and two blank cards, and is a testament to Hallifax’s dedication and ingenuity. While they may not be easy to play with, the cards are a marvel of miniature craftsmanship. As Hallifax himself noted, two complete decks can be laid out on the back of a single regular playing card, highlighting just how remarkably small they are.
