The packaging on this deck doesn't make it clear that only the major arcana and court cards are illustrated. It says "Each of the 78 cards contains an exquisite, specially commissioned painting," and the box shows several fully illustrated major cards. However, when you open the deck you find out that the 40 pip cards just have the same generic background (same within each suit) with a repeated symbol (for instance, 3 of cups has the standard cups background and three identical cups arranged on it, like the number cards in a standard deck of playing cards).
Yes, this practice goes back to a tradition before people started illustrating all the tarot cards, but in this day and age of fabulous deck artistry it feels cheap or lazy, and greatly reduces the usefulness of the deck for me. As I like to read for myself and others using the images to spark intuitive insights, having to rely on a memorized formula for the card meanings trivializes the process. Perhaps for someone who already knows the tarot meanings inside out, this would be less of an issue, but it certainly would detract from the enjoyment and utility for anyone new to the practice as I am. Just looking at an image of 5 identical cups is unlikely to mean much.
On the good side, the artwork on the illustrated cards is very pleasing, calm, clean and uncluttered yet detailed enough, in most cases (many of the court cards are a bit generic), to draw out the traditional meanings as well as some intuitive insights. The pictures are very gentle and would be suitable for younger readers or anyone who doesn't like some of the harsher or more violent imagery in some decks. Death and the Devil are both represented in a non-frightening way that suits modern practices of reading those cards as, if not positive, at least not strictly literal. Perhaps to broaden the audience for the deck, all the figures are clothed except, inexplicably, the Star figure who is entirely nude (so I'm not sure what the overall philosophy was about this issue).
Do not confuse this deck with Kat Black's Golden Tarot which was published some years earlier and is a classic among tarot enthusiasts. There is some concern that the publisher using the same name for this deck is acting unethically. It also bothers me that even though the artwork is the only redeeming feature of the deck, the artist's name, Melissa Launay, isn't even included on the package, and is only mentioned in small print in the included book. Whatever the reason for this, it smacks of not giving adequate credit.
Had Launay been contracted to provide full original illustrations for all of the cards, this might have been one of my favourite all purpose decks for reading for others. As is, I'm unlikely to use it except perhaps if I am doing any majors-only readings.