Auctioneer

The object of this card game is to collect as many pairs as possible. The game, first published in 1916, has cards with objects on them, a gavel, and some coins. At the start of the game the cards are dealt and the coins distributed evenly. One player takes the first turn at being auctioneer. He takes up the gavel and declares an item for sale from his cards. The trick is the auctioneer can only describe the item by it's number of legs. Many different items have the same number of legs, so players have to bid on the chance that they are getting the item they need, without really knowing it. The purchaser of the card becomes the new auctioneer. As players earn pairs they set them aside and are assigned a value. When all cards are exhausted the winner is the one with the most value in pairs and in coins.