Check out Caitlin McDevitt’s slideshow over at The Big Money chronicling how the look of credit cards has changed since 1951, when the first Diner’s Club card was issued. “The idea behind it-a third party facilitating a ‘buy-now, pay-later’ process-was revolutionary,” she writes. The show includes the flashy gold American Express Executive Card, ancestor of the company’s ultimate tool of conspicuous consumption , the titanium Centurion Black Card. Also represented in the lineup are the university logo cards our alma maters used to actively market to freshmen-until they got caught .
