2027 card drops in April. Get the email →

Your bag is empty

Chinese Mahjong

Numbered Mahjong Tiles Set - Saffron

A 144 tile Chinese set with the numbers printed on, for a table where at least one person is still learning the characters.

Numbers remove the single biggest obstacle for a new player
Large tiles that rest against each other in the hand
The full 144 count for the traditional game
Made for a mixed table of regulars and beginners

$119.99

(0 reviews)

delivery_truck_bolt Estimated delivery: -

package_2

Flat $9.95 shipping · 30-day returns from delivery

The obstacle numbered tiles remove

Learning mahjong involves two things at once: learning the game, and learning to read the tiles. They are unrelated difficulties, and the second one is what stops people.

A beginner facing a traditional set has to recognise 27 suit characters before a hand makes sense, on top of understanding what a hand is. Numbered tiles remove that entirely. The number is printed on the face, the beginner plays immediately, and the characters are absorbed over the following weeks without effort.

For a group that wants to bring new people in, this is the most useful feature a set can have.

Handling

13 tiles are held, sorted and rearranged constantly through a hand. Larger tiles sit against each other and move under a thumb. Small ones have to be picked individually, which slows the game and is genuinely difficult for stiff hands.

The traditional count

144 tiles: 3 suits at 108, 16 winds, 12 dragons, 8 flowers and seasons. No jokers. This is the Chinese game as played worldwide, and it is what almost every book and app teaches.

Bringing new players in

Mahjong groups shrink over time unless they recruit, and recruiting fails at the same point almost every time: the first evening, when a new player spends 2 hours unable to read their own hand and concludes the game is not for them.

A numbered set removes that evening entirely. It is the simplest thing a group can do to keep its numbers up, and it costs the regulars nothing since they stop seeing the numerals within a fortnight.

Care

Barely damp cloth, no solvent, stored contained. Count the tiles back in at the end of a session, since a set missing one tile is not playable and single tiles cannot be replaced.

144 numbered mahjong tiles

Tiles: 144
Set weight: 2.2 lb (1.01 kg)

Tiles	144
Numbering	Numbers on suit tiles
Weight	1 kg (2.2 lb)
Age	14 and over

Three things tell you more about a set than its price.

Weight. A full-size set runs around 2 to 3 kg; a travel set can be under 1 kg. That difference is what you feel when you shuffle, and it is listed in the specifications on every page here.

Material. Melamine and acrylic give a bright click. Stone, bone and denser composites are duller and heavier in the hand. Neither is better: they suit different tables.

Tile size. From 30 mm upward reads comfortably from the seat opposite. Between 24 and 29 mm suits two players better than four. Below 24 mm is made to pack, not to read at a distance.

You do not need an expensive set to play well. You need one your table can read and you are happy to handle.

Orders are processed within 1 to 2 business days, with tracking on every parcel. Delivery across the United States takes 10 to 25 days and costs $9.95, one flat rate charged once per order whatever the number of items.

Changed your mind? You have 30 days from delivery to request a return, unused and in its original packaging. Approved refunds go back to your original payment method within 3 business days.

inventory_2

Play tonight

Tiles, and everything the case holds, in one box. Unwrap it, deal a hand, and your table is running.

graphic_eq

The sound alone

Shuffling a real set is half the pleasure. Weight in your hand, that clack across the table: you can hear it before you see it.

history

Yours for twenty years

A set outlasts the group it started with. Choose one you'll still want on the table when someone else is dealing.

Frequently asked questions

Drawing is done openly, one tile at a time from the wall, and it is taken into a hand that stays concealed from the other players. The distinction people are usually reaching for is between drawing from the wall and claiming a discard, which has to be declared out loud before the tile is taken. Concealment applies to what you hold, not to the act of picking a tile up.

Because a hundred and forty four things have to look like one thing. Every tile is finished to the same standard and any that is not takes the set down with it, so the reject rate is charged against sets rather than pieces. Numbering adds a further pass across every suit tile. The unit price of a tile is trivial; the unit price of consistency is not.

Less than most people expect for a playable set, and more than they expect for one that lasts. The line sits at whether the markings are cut or printed and whether the tile is dense enough to feel like an object. Numerals push a set slightly up the range for the extra production pass, and they are worth it on any table where someone is still learning the faces.

The green dragon, one of the 3 dragon honours, and it scores in sets like any honour tile. On a numbered set it is one of the tiles that stays unnumbered, since numbers are printed on the suits and the honours carry only their character. That is worth knowing for a new player: if a tile has no numeral, it is a wind, a dragon or a bonus tile.

Play in Style with The Mahjong Section

A mahjong set is handled more than almost anything else in the house: every tile passes through four pairs of hands, several times a game.

That is what we select for. Tiles that read clearly from the far side of the table, edges that stay clean, and a case that still closes after a few seasons of being carried around.

A Set Worth Collecting

Sets differ in ways that only show at the table: the weight of a tile in the hand, how a crak reads from three seats away, whether the case survives the trip to a friend’s house.

When we have the figures, we publish them: tile count, tile size, weight and material. When we do not have one, we leave it out rather than guess.