A
playing card is a piece of specially prepared heavy paper, thin cardboard, plastic-coated paper, cotton-paper blend, or thin plastic, marked with distinguishing motifs and used as one of a set for playing
card gameA card game is any game using playing cards as the primary device with which the game is played, be they traditional or game-specific. Countless card games exist, including families of related games...
s. Playing cards are typically palm-sized for convenient handling.
A complete set of cards is called a
pack or
deck, and the subset of cards held at one time by a player during a game is commonly called a
hand. A deck of cards may be used for playing a great variety of card games, with varying elements of skill and chance, some of which are played for money. Because playing cards are both standardized and commonly available, they are used for other purpses, such as
magic tricksMagic is a performing art that entertains audiences by staging tricks or creating illusions of seemingly impossible or supernatural feats using natural means...
,
cartomancyCartomancy is fortune-telling or divination using a deck of cards. Forms of cartomancy appeared soon after playing cards were first introduced into Europe in the 14th century...
, or building a
house of cardsA house of cards is a structure created by stacking playing cards on top of each other. House of cards is also an expression which dates back to 1645 meaning; a structure or argument built on a shaky foundation or one that will collapse if a necessary element is removed...
.
The front (or "face") of each card carries markings that distinguish it from the other cards in the deck and determine its use under the rules of the game being played. The back of each card is identical for all cards in any particular deck, and usually of a single color or formalized design. Usually every card will be smooth; however some
decks have
brailleThe Braille system is a method that is widely used by blind people to read and write, and was the first digital form of writing.Braille was devised in 1825 by Louis Braille, a blind Frenchman. Each Braille character, or cell, is made up of six dot positions, arranged in a rectangle containing two...
to allow blind people to read the card number and
suitIn playing cards, a suit is one of several categories into which the cards of a deck are divided. Most often, each card bears one of several symbols showing to which suit it belongs; the suit may alternatively or in addition be indicated by the color printed on the card...
. The backs of playing cards are sometimes used for advertising. For most games, the cards are assembled into a deck, and their order is
randomizedRandomization is the process of making something random; this means:* Generating a random permutation of a sequence .* Selecting a random sample of a population ....
by
shufflingShuffling is a procedure used to randomize a deck of playing cards to provide an element of chance in card games. Shuffling is often followed by a cut, to help ensure that the shuffler has not manipulated the outcome.-Shuffling techniques:...
.
Early history
Playing cards were invented in Ancient China. They were found in China as early as the 9th century during the
Tang DynastyThe Tang Dynasty was an imperial dynasty of China preceded by the Sui Dynasty and followed by the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period. It was founded by the Li family, who seized power during the decline and collapse of the Sui Empire...
(618–907). The first reference to card games in world history dates from the 9th century, when the
Collection of Miscellanea at Duyang, written by Tang Dynasty writer Su E, described Princess Tongchang (daughter of
Emperor Yizong of TangEmperor Yizong of Tang , né Li Wen , later changed to Li Cui , was an emperor of the Tang dynasty of China. He reigned from 859 to 873. Yizong was the eldest son of Emperor Xuānzong...
) playing the "leaf game" in 868 with members of the
Wei clanWei Baoheng , courtesy name Yunyong , was an official of the Chinese dynasty Tang Dynasty. He became extremely powerful late in the reign of his father-in-law Emperor Yizong, rising to the post of chancellor and becoming the most powerful official at court, but after Emperor Yizong's death was...
(the family of the princess' husband). The
Song DynastyThe Song Dynasty was a ruling dynasty in China between 960 and 1279; it succeeded the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period, and was followed by the Yuan Dynasty. It was the first government in world history to issue banknotes or paper money, and the first Chinese government to establish a...
(960–1279) scholar
Ouyang XiuOuyang Xiu was a Chinese statesman, historian, essayist and poet of the Song Dynasty. He is also known by his courtesy name of Yongshu, and was also self nicknamed The Old Drunkard 醉翁, or Householder of the One of Six 六一居士 in his old age...
(1007–1072) asserted that playing cards and card games existed at least since the mid Tang Dynasty and associated their invention with the simultaneous development of using sheets or pages instead of paper rolls as a writing medium. The first known book on cards called
Yezi Gexi was allegedly written by a Tang era woman, and was commented on by Chinese writers of subsequent dynasties.
By the 11th century playing cards could be found throughout the Asian continent. During the
Ming DynastyThe Ming Dynasty, also Empire of the Great Ming, was the ruling dynasty of China from 1368 to 1644, following the collapse of the Mongol-led Yuan Dynasty. The Ming, "one of the greatest eras of orderly government and social stability in human history", was the last dynasty in China ruled by ethnic...
(1368-1644), characters from popular
novelA novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
s such as the
Water MarginWater Margin , also known as Outlaws of the Marsh, All Men Are Brothers, Men of the Marshes, or The Marshes of Mount Liang, is one of the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese literature.Attributed to Shi Nai'an and written in vernacular Chinese, the story, set in the Song Dynasty,...
were widely featured on the faces of playing cards.
Ancient Chinese "money cards" have four
suitsIn playing cards, a suit is one of several categories into which the cards of a deck are divided. Most often, each card bears one of several symbols showing to which suit it belongs; the suit may alternatively or in addition be indicated by the color printed on the card...
: coins (or cash), strings of coins (which may have been misinterpreted as sticks from crude drawings), myriads (of coins or of strings), and tens of myriads (a myriad is 10000). These were represented by
ideogramAn ideogram or ideograph is a graphic symbol that represents an idea or concept. Some ideograms are comprehensible only by familiarity with prior convention; others convey their meaning through pictorial resemblance to a physical object, and thus may also be referred to as pictograms.Examples of...
s, with numerals of 2–9 in the first three
suitsIn playing cards, a suit is one of several categories into which the cards of a deck are divided. Most often, each card bears one of several symbols showing to which suit it belongs; the suit may alternatively or in addition be indicated by the color printed on the card...
and numerals 1–9 in the "tens of myriads". Wilkinson suggests that the first cards may have been actual paper currency which were both the tools of gaming and the stakes being played for, as in
trading cardA trading card is a small card, usually made out of paperboard or thick paper, which usually contains an image of a certain person, place or thing and a short description of the picture, along with other text...
games. The designs on modern
Mahjong tilesMahjong tiles are tiles of Chinese origin that are used to play many games, most notably Mahjong and Mahjong solitaire. Although they are most commonly tiles, they may also refer to playing cards with similar contents as well.- Construction :Traditionally, Mahjong tiles were made of bone, often...
likely evolved from those earliest playing cards. However, it may be that the first deck of cards ever printed was a Chinese domino deck, in whose cards we can see all the 21 combinations of a pair of dice. In
Kuei-t'ien-lu, a Chinese text
redactedRedaction is a form of editing in which multiple source texts are combined and subjected to minor alteration to make them into a single work. Often this is a method of collecting a series of writings on a similar theme and creating a definitive and coherent work...
in the 11th century, we find that dominoes cards were printed during the Tang Dynasty, contemporary to the
first printed booksThe history of printing in East Asia refers to the use of woodblock printing and movable type printing by East Asian artisans. The former existed in Tang China as early as the 7th century, and the latter in Song China by the 11th century. Use of woodblock printing quickly spread to other East Asian...
. The Chinese word
pái (牌) is used to describe both paper cards and gaming tiles.
Introduction into Europe
Playing cards first entered
EuropeEurope is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
in the late 14th century, probably from
Mamluk EgyptThe Mamluk Sultanate of Egypt was the final independent Egyptian state prior to the establishment of the Muhammad Ali Dynasty in 1805. It lasted from the overthrow of the Ayyubid Dynasty until the Ottoman conquest of Egypt in 1517. The sultanate's ruling caste was composed of Mamluks, Arabised...
, with suits (ie sets of cards with matching designs) very similar to the tarot suits of Swords, Staves, Cups and Coins (also known as disks, and
pentacleA pentacle is an amulet used in magical evocation, generally made of parchment, paper or metal , on which the symbol of a spirit or energy being evoked is drawn. It is often worn around the neck, or placed within the triangle of evocation...
s) and those still used in traditional
ItalianItaly , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
,
SpanishSpain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
and
PortuguesePortugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...
decks. The first documentary evidence is a ban on their use in 1367, Bern, Switzerland. Their presence is attested in
CataloniaCatalonia is an autonomous community in northeastern Spain, with the official status of a "nationality" of Spain. Catalonia comprises four provinces: Barcelona, Girona, Lleida, and Tarragona. Its capital and largest city is Barcelona. Catalonia covers an area of 32,114 km² and has an...
in 1371.
Wide use of playing cards in Europe can, with some certainty, be traced from 1377 onwards.
The
MamelukeA Mamluk was a soldier of slave origin, who were predominantly Cumans/Kipchaks The "mamluk phenomenon", as David Ayalon dubbed the creation of the specific warrior...
deck contained 52 cards comprising four "suits": polo sticks, coins, swords, and cups. Each suit contained ten "spot" cards (cards identified by the number of suit symbols or "pips" they show) and three "court" cards named
malik (King),
nā'ib malik (Viceroy or Deputy King), and
thānī nā'ib (Second or Under-Deputy). The Mameluke court cards showed abstract designs not depicting persons (at least not in any surviving specimens) though they did bear the names of military officers.
A complete pack of Mameluke playing cards was discovered by Leo Mayer in the
Topkapı PalaceThe Topkapı Palace is a large palace in Istanbul, Turkey, that was the primary residence of the Ottoman Sultans for approximately 400 years of their 624-year reign....
,
IstanbulIstanbul , historically known as Byzantium and Constantinople , is the largest city of Turkey. Istanbul metropolitan province had 13.26 million people living in it as of December, 2010, which is 18% of Turkey's population and the 3rd largest metropolitan area in Europe after London and...
, in 1939; this particular complete pack was not made before 1400, but the complete deck was matched to a privately owned fragment dated to the 12th or 13th century. It is not a complete deck, but there are cards of three packs of the same style.
It is not known whether these cards influenced the design of the Indian cards used for the game of
GanjifaGanjifa, or Gânjaphâ, is a card game that originated in Persia and became popular in India under the Mughal emperors in the 16th century.-Description:The name Ganjifa comes from the Persian word ganjifeh , meaning playing card...
, or whether the Indian cards may have influenced these. Regardless, the Indian cards have many distinctive features: they are round, generally hand painted with intricate designs, and comprise more than four suits (often as many as thirty two, like a deck in the Deutsches Spielkarten-Museum, painted in the
MewarMewar is a region of south-central Rajasthan state in western India. It includes the present-day districts of Pratapgarh, Bhilwara, Chittorgarh, Rajsamand, Udaipur, Dungarpur, Banswara and some of the part of Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh. The region was for centuries a Rajput kingdom that later...
, a city in
RajasthanRājasthān the land of Rajasthanis, , is the largest state of the Republic of India by area. It is located in the northwest of India. It encompasses most of the area of the large, inhospitable Great Indian Desert , which has an edge paralleling the Sutlej-Indus river valley along its border with...
, between the 18th and 19th century. Decks used to play have from eight up to twenty suits).
Spread across Europe and early design changes
In the late 14th century, the use of playing cards spread rapidly throughout Europe. Documents mentioning cards date from 1371 in Spain, 1377 in
SwitzerlandSwitzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
, and 1380 in many locations including
FlorenceFlorence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with approximately 370,000 inhabitants, expanding to over 1.5 million in the metropolitan area....
and
ParisParis is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
. A 1369 Paris ordinance (on gaming?) does not mention cards, but its 1377 update does. In the account books of
Johanna, Duchess of BrabantJoanna, Duchess of Brabant , also known as Jeanne, was the heiress of Duke John III, who died in Brussels, December 5, 1355. Her mother was Marie d'Évreux.- Family :...
and Wenceslaus I, Duke of Luxemburg, an entry dated May 14, 1379 reads: "Given to Monsieur and Madame four peters, two forms, value eight and a half moutons, wherewith to buy a pack of cards". In his book of accounts for 1392 or 1393, Charles or Charbot Poupart, treasurer of the household of
Charles VI of FranceCharles VI , called the Beloved and the Mad , was the King of France from 1380 to 1422, as a member of the House of Valois. His bouts with madness, which seem to have begun in 1392, led to quarrels among the French royal family, which were exploited by the neighbouring powers of England and Burgundy...
, records payment for the painting of three sets of cards.
The earliest cards were made by hand, like those designed for Charles VI; this was expensive. Printed woodcut decks appeared in the 15th century. The technique of printing
woodcutWoodcut—occasionally known as xylography—is a relief printing artistic technique in printmaking in which an image is carved into the surface of a block of wood, with the printing parts remaining level with the surface while the non-printing parts are removed, typically with gouges...
s to decorate fabric was transferred to printing on
paperPaper is a thin material mainly used for writing upon, printing upon, drawing or for packaging. It is produced by pressing together moist fibers, typically cellulose pulp derived from wood, rags or grasses, and drying them into flexible sheets....
around 1400 in Christian Europe, very shortly after the first recorded manufacture of paper there, while in Islamic Spain it was much
olderAn old master print is a work of art produced by a printing process within the Western tradition . A date of about 1830 is usually taken as marking the end of the period whose prints are covered by this term. The main techniques concerned are woodcut, engraving and etching, although there are...
. The earliest dated European woodcut is 1418. No examples of printed cards from before 1423 survive. But from about 1418 to 1450 professional card makers in
UlmUlm is a city in the federal German state of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the River Danube. The city, whose population is estimated at 120,000 , forms an urban district of its own and is the administrative seat of the Alb-Donau district. Ulm, founded around 850, is rich in history and...
,
NurembergNuremberg[p] is a city in the German state of Bavaria, in the administrative region of Middle Franconia. Situated on the Pegnitz river and the Rhine–Main–Danube Canal, it is located about north of Munich and is Franconia's largest city. The population is 505,664...
, and
AugsburgAugsburg is a city in the south-west of Bavaria, Germany. It is a university town and home of the Regierungsbezirk Schwaben and the Bezirk Schwaben. Augsburg is an urban district and home to the institutions of the Landkreis Augsburg. It is, as of 2008, the third-largest city in Bavaria with a...
created printed decks. Playing cards even competed with devotional images as the most common uses for
woodcutWoodcut—occasionally known as xylography—is a relief printing artistic technique in printmaking in which an image is carved into the surface of a block of wood, with the printing parts remaining level with the surface while the non-printing parts are removed, typically with gouges...
in this period.
Most early woodcuts of all types were coloured after printing, either by hand or, from about 1450 onwards, stencils. These 15th century playing cards were probably painted.
The
Master of the Playing CardsThe Master of the Playing Cards was the first major master in the history of printmaking. He was a German engraver, and probably also a painter, active in southwestern Germany from the 1430s to the 1450s, who has been called "the first personality in the history of engraving." Various attempts...
worked in Germany from the 1430s with the newly invented
printmakingPrintmaking is the process of making artworks by printing, normally on paper. Printmaking normally covers only the process of creating prints with an element of originality, rather than just being a photographic reproduction of a painting. Except in the case of monotyping, the process is capable...
technique of
engravingEngraving is the practice of incising a design on to a hard, usually flat surface, by cutting grooves into it. The result may be a decorated object in itself, as when silver, gold, steel, or glass are engraved, or may provide an intaglio printing plate, of copper or another metal, for printing...
. Several other important engravers also made cards, including Master ES and
Martin SchongauerMartin Schongauer was a German engraver and painter. He was the most important German printmaker before Albrecht Dürer....
. Engraving was much more expensive than woodcut, and engraved cards must have been relatively unusual.
In the 15th century in Europe, the
suitsIn playing cards, a suit is one of several categories into which the cards of a deck are divided. Most often, each card bears one of several symbols showing to which suit it belongs; the suit may alternatively or in addition be indicated by the color printed on the card...
of playing cards varied: typically a deck had four suits, although five suits were common and other arrangements are also known. In Germany, hearts (Herz/Rot), bells (Schellen), leaves (Grün), and acorns (Eichel) became the standard suits and are still used in Eastern and Southeastern German decks today for Skat,
SchafkopfSchafkopf, also called Schaffkopf, is a late 18th century German trick-taking card game most popular in Bavaria, but also played in other parts of Germany as well as other German-speaking countries like Austria. Its modern descendants are Doppelkopf, Skat and the North American game of Sheepshead...
,
DoppelkopfDoppelkopf , also abbreviated to "Doko," is a trick-taking card game for four players. The origins of this game are not well known; it is assumed that it originated from the game Schafkopf....
, and other games.
ItalianItaly , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
and
SpanishSpain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
cards of the 15th century used swords, batons (or wands), cups, and coins (or rings). The Tarot, which included extra trump cards, was invented in Italy in the 15th century.
The four
suitsIn playing cards, a suit is one of several categories into which the cards of a deck are divided. Most often, each card bears one of several symbols showing to which suit it belongs; the suit may alternatively or in addition be indicated by the color printed on the card...
now used in most of the world — spades, hearts, diamonds, and clubs — originated in France in about 1480. The
trèfle (club) was probably derived from the acorn and the
pique (spade) from the leaf of the German suits. The names "pique" and "spade", however, may have derived from the sword of the Italian suits. In England, the French suits were eventually used, although the earliest decks had the Italian suits [Chatto, link not provided].
Also in the 15th century, Europeans changed the court cards to represent European royalty and attendants, originally "king", "chevalier" (knight), and "knave". The original meaning of
knave was
male child (cf German
Knabe), so in this context the character could represent the "prince", son to the King and Queen; the meaning
servant developed later. In a German pack from the 1440s, Queens replace Kings in two of the suits as the highest card. Decks of 56 cards containing in each suit a King, Queen, Knight, and Valet (from the French tarot court) were common.
Court cards designed in the 16th century in the manufacturing centre of
RouenRouen , in northern France on the River Seine, is the capital of the Haute-Normandie region and the historic capital city of Normandy. Once one of the largest and most prosperous cities of medieval Europe , it was the seat of the Exchequer of Normandy in the Middle Ages...
became the standard design in England, while a Parisian design became standard in France. Both the Parisian and Rouennais court cards were named after historical and mythological heroes and heroines. The Parisian names have become more common in modern use, even with cards of Rouennais design.
| Modern Paris court card name |
Traditional Paris court card name |
| King of Spades |
DavidDavid was the second king of the united Kingdom of Israel according to the Hebrew Bible and, according to the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, an ancestor of Jesus Christ through both Saint Joseph and Mary...
|
| King of Hearts |
CharlesCharles is a given name for males and is borrowed from the French form of the Latin Carolus Charles is a given name for males and is borrowed from the French form of the Latin Carolus...
(possibly CharlemagneCharlemagne was King of the Franks from 768 and Emperor of the Romans from 800 to his death in 814. He expanded the Frankish kingdom into an empire that incorporated much of Western and Central Europe. During his reign, he conquered Italy and was crowned by Pope Leo III on 25 December 800...
, or Charles VIICharles VII , called the Victorious or the Well-Served , was King of France from 1422 to his death, though he was initially opposed by Henry VI of England, whose Regent, the Duke of Bedford, ruled much of France including the capital, Paris...
, in which case Rachel (see below) would be the pseudonym of his mistress, Agnès SorelAgnès Sorel , known by the sobriquet Dame de beauté, was a favourite mistress of King Charles VII of France, for whom she bore three daughters....
) |
| King of Diamonds |
Julius CaesarGaius Julius Caesar was a Roman general and statesman and a distinguished writer of Latin prose. He played a critical role in the gradual transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire....
|
| King of Clubs |
Alexander the Great |
| Queen of Spades |
Pallas |
| Queen of Hearts |
Judith |
| Queen of Diamonds |
RachelRachel , as described in the Hebrew Bible, is a prophet and the favorite wife of Jacob, one of the three Biblical Patriarchs, and mother of Joseph and Benjamin. She was the daughter of Laban and the younger sister of Leah, Jacob's first wife...
(either biblical, historical (see Charles above), or mythical as a corruption of the Celtic Ragnel, relating to Lancelot below) |
| Queen of Clubs |
Argine (possibly an anagramAn anagram is a type of word play, the result of rearranging the letters of a word or phrase to produce a new word or phrase, using all the original letters exactly once; e.g., orchestra = carthorse, A decimal point = I'm a dot in place, Tom Marvolo Riddle = I am Lord Voldemort. Someone who...
of regina, which is LatinLatin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
for queen, or perhaps ArgeaArgia or Argeia is a name borne by four minor characters in Greek mythology. These are:* Argia, one of the Oceanids. She was the mother of Phoroneus by her brother Inachus. She may also have been the mother of Io....
, wife of Polybus and mother of ArgusIn Greek mythology, the Argo was the ship on which Jason and the Argonauts sailed from Iolcos to retrieve the Golden Fleece. It was named after its builder, Argus.-Legend:...
) |
| Knave of Spades |
Ogier the Dane/Holger Danske Ogier the Dane is a legendary character who first appears in an Old French chanson de geste, in the cycle of poems Geste de Doon de Mayence....
(a knight of Charlemagne) |
| Knave of Hearts |
La HireÉtienne de Vignolles, called La Hire, was a French military commander during the Hundred Years' War. His nickname of La Hire would be that the English had nicknamed "the Hire-God" . He fought alongside Joan of Arc in the campaigns of 1429...
(comrade-in-arms to Joan of Arc, and member of Charles VIICharles VII , called the Victorious or the Well-Served , was King of France from 1422 to his death, though he was initially opposed by Henry VI of England, whose Regent, the Duke of Bedford, ruled much of France including the capital, Paris...
's court) |
| Knave of Diamonds |
HectorIn Greek mythology, Hectōr , or Hektōr, is a Trojan prince and the greatest fighter for Troy in the Trojan War. As the first-born son of King Priam and Queen Hecuba, a descendant of Dardanus, who lived under Mount Ida, and of Tros, the founder of Troy, he was a prince of the royal house and the...
|
| Knave of Clubs |
Judas Maccabeus Judah Maccabee was a Kohen and a son of the Jewish priest Mattathias...
, or LancelotSir Lancelot du Lac is one of the Knights of the Round Table in the Arthurian legend. He is the most trusted of King Arthur's knights and plays a part in many of Arthur's victories...
|
Later design changes
In early games the kings were
always the highest card in their suit. However, as early as the late 14th century special significance began to be placed on the nominally lowest card, now called the
AceAn ace is a playing card. In the standard French deck, an ace has a single suit symbol located in the middle of the card, sometimes large and decorated, especially in the case of the Ace of Spades...
, so that it sometimes became the highest card and the Two, or Deuce, the lowest. This concept may have been hastened in the late 18th century by the
French RevolutionThe French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...
, where games began being played "ace high" as a symbol of lower classes rising in power above the royalty. The term "Ace" itself comes from a dicing term in
Anglo-Norman languageAnglo-Norman is the name traditionally given to the kind of Old Norman used in England and to some extent elsewhere in the British Isles during the Anglo-Norman period....
, which is itself derived from the Latin
as (the smallest unit of coinage). Another dicing term,
trey (3), sometimes shows up in playing card games.
Packs with corner and edge indices (ie the value of the card printed at the corner(s) of the card) enabled players to hold their cards close together in a fan with one hand (instead of the two hands previously used). The first such deck known with Latin suits was printed by Infirerra and dated 1693 (International Playing Cards Society Journal 30-1 page 34), but this feature was commonly used only from the end of 18th century. Indices in the Anglo-American deck were used from 1875, when the New York Consolidated Card Company patented the Squeezers, the first cards with indices that had a large diffusion. However the first Anglo-American deck with this innovation was the Saladee's Patent, printed by Samuel Hart in 1864.
Before this time, the lowest court card in an English deck was officially termed the
Knave, but its abbreviation ("Kn") was too similar to the King ("K") and thus this term did not adapt well to indices. However, from the 17th century the Knave had often been termed the
Jack, a term borrowed from the
English RenaissanceThe English Renaissance was a cultural and artistic movement in England dating from the late 15th and early 16th centuries to the early 17th century. It is associated with the pan-European Renaissance that is usually regarded as beginning in Italy in the late 14th century; like most of northern...
card game All Fours where the Knave of trumps has this name. All Fours was considered a game of the lower classes, so the use of the term Jack at one time was considered vulgar. The use of indices, however, encouraged a formal change from Knave to
JackA Jack, also Knave, is a playing card with a picture of a man on it. The usual rank of a jack, within its suit, is as if it were an 11 ....
in English language decks. In other languages, this conflict does not exist: the French tarot deck for instance labels its lowest court card the "Valet", which is the "squire" to the Knight card (not seen in 52-card decks) as the Queen is paired with the King. This name, abbreviated "V", is used for modern 52 card packs in the French language.
This was followed by the innovation of reversible court cards. This invention is attributed to a French card maker of
AgenAgen is a commune in the Lot-et-Garonne department in Aquitaine in south-western France. It lies on the river Garonne southeast of Bordeaux. It is the capital of the department.-Economy:The town has a higher level of unemployment than the national average...
in 1745. But the French government, which controlled the design of playing cards, prohibited the printing of cards with this innovation. In central Europe (trappola cards), Italy (tarocchino bolognese) and in Spain the innovation was adopted during the second half of 18th century. In Great Britain the deck with reversible court cards was patented in 1799 by Edmund Ludlow and Ann Wilcox. The Anglo-American pack with this design was printed around 1802 by Thomas Wheeler. Reversible court cards meant that players had no need to turn upside-down court cards right side up. Before this, other players could often get a hint of what other players' hands contained by watching them reverse their cards. This innovation required abandoning some of the design elements of the earlier full-length courts.
During the French Revolution, the traditional design of Kings, Queens, and Jacks became Liberties, Equalities, and Fraternities. The radical French government of 1793 and 1794 toppled the old regime and a good revolutionary would not play with Kings or Queens, but with the ideals of the revolution at hand. This would ultimately be reversed in 1805 with the rise of Napoleon.
The United States introduced the
jokerJoker is a special type of playing card found in most modern decks, or else a type of tile in some Mahjong game sets.-Name:It is believed that the term "Joker" comes from a mispronunciation of Jucker, the German/Alsatian name for the game Euchre. The card was originally introduced in about 1860 for...
into the deck. The stylings of the joker and its function are almost identical to
the FoolThe Fool or The Jester is one of the 78 cards in a Tarot deck; one of the 22 Trump cards that make up the Major Arcana. The Fool is unnumbered...
from the original French Tarot deck, which had been removed in the transformation to the standard 52-card French deck. It was devised for the game of
EuchreEuchre or eucre, is a trick-taking card game most commonly played with four people in two partnerships with a deck of 24 standard playing cards. It is the game responsible for introducing the joker into modern packs; this was invented around 1860 to act as a top trump or best bower...
, which spread from Europe to America beginning shortly after the
American Revolutionary WarThe American Revolutionary War , the American War of Independence, or simply the Revolutionary War, began as a war between the Kingdom of Great Britain and thirteen British colonies in North America, and ended in a global war between several European great powers.The war was the result of the...
and was very popular by the mid-19th century. In Euchre, the highest trump card is the Jack of the trump suit, called the
right bower (or bauer); the second-highest trump, the
left bower, is the Jack of the suit of the same color as trumps. The joker was invented c. 1870 as a third trump, the
best bower, which ranked higher than the other two
bowers. The name of the card is believed to derive from
juker, a variant name for Euchre.
In the 19th century, a type of card known as a
transformation playing cardA transformation playing card is a type of playing card where an artist incorporates the pips of the non-face cards into an artistic design. In a classical transformation playing card, the pips retain their standard position and coloration on the card...
became popular in Europe and America. In these cards, an artist incorporated the pips of the non-face cards into an artistic design.
Symbolism
Popular legend holds that the composition of a deck of cards has religious, mystical, or astrological significance.
Thus each suit of 13 cards represents the 13 months of the lunar year. Since the
SiderealSidereal, of the stars, may refer to:* Measurements of time:** Sidereal time** Sidereal day** Sidereal month** Sidereal year* Sidereal period of an object orbiting a star* Sidereal astrology...
lunar monthIn lunar calendars, a lunar month is the time between two identical syzygies . There are many variations. In Middle-Eastern and European traditions, the month starts when the young crescent moon becomes first visible at evening after conjunction with the Sun one or two days before that evening...
may be approximated to 28 days, each suit is equal to 364 days of the year.
Similarly the whole deck of the 52 cards represents the 52 weeks of the year. Therefore the whole deck is also equal to 364 days of the year. For reference see the "
positivist calendarThe positivist calendar was a calendar reform proposal by Auguste Comte in 1849. After revising the earlier work of Marco Mastrofini, Comte's proposed calendar was a solar calendar which had 13 months of 28 days, and an additional festival day commemorating the dead, totalling 365 days.This extra...
".
The Ace is symbolically “
Alpha and OmegaThe term Alpha and Omega comes from the phrase "I am the alpha and the omega" , an appellation of Jesus in the Book of Revelation ....
” or “the Beginning and End”.
French design
The primary deck of 52 playing cards in use today includes 13 ranks of each of the four French
suitsIn playing cards, a suit is one of several categories into which the cards of a deck are divided. Most often, each card bears one of several symbols showing to which suit it belongs; the suit may alternatively or in addition be indicated by the color printed on the card...
, clubs , diamonds , hearts and spades , with reversible Rouennais "court" or face cards. Each suit includes an
aceAn ace is a playing card. In the standard French deck, an ace has a single suit symbol located in the middle of the card, sometimes large and decorated, especially in the case of the Ace of Spades...
, depicting a single symbol of its suit; a king, queen, and jack, each depicted with a symbol of their suit; and ranks two through ten, with each card depicting that number of symbols (
pips) of its suit. As well as these 52 cards, commercial decks often include two
jokersJoker is a special type of playing card found in most modern decks, or else a type of tile in some Mahjong game sets.-Name:It is believed that the term "Joker" comes from a mispronunciation of Jucker, the German/Alsatian name for the game Euchre. The card was originally introduced in about 1860 for...
. In many games the Jokers are not used, and in some games not all the other 52 cards are used. The jokers are usually distinguishable by colour.
Sizes
The most common sizes for playing cards are poker size (2½in × 3½in; 63 mm × 88 mm, or B8 size according to
ISO 216ISO 216 specifies international standard paper sizes used in most countries in the world today. It defines the "A" and "B" series of paper sizes, including A4, the most commonly available size...
) and bridge size (2¼in × 3½in, approx. 56 mm × 88 mm), the latter being narrower, and thus more suitable for games such as
bridgeContract bridge, usually known simply as bridge, is a trick-taking card game using a standard deck of 52 playing cards played by four players in two competing partnerships with partners sitting opposite each other around a small table...
in which a large number of cards must be held concealed in a player's hand. Other sizes are also available, such as a smaller size (usually 1¾in × 2⅝in, approx. 44 mm × 66 mm) for
solitaireSolitaire is any tabletop game which one can play by oneself or with other people. The solitaire card game Klondike is often known as simply Solitaire....
, tall narrow designs for travel and larger ones for card tricks. The weight of an average B8-sized playing card is 0.063 oz (1.8g), a deck 3.3 oz (94g).
Styling
Modern playing cards carry index labels on opposite corners so that the card can be identified when held in a fan, whichever way up it is. These stylings, together with the popular imagery on the court cards are sometimes referred to as "English" or "Anglo-American" and are the most popular forms of the French deck. Various alternative stylings include indices at all four corners, court indices in different languages, different court imagery or perhaps novelty stylings.
For example English "KQJ" = French "RDV" (roi, dame, valet) = German "KDB" (König, Dame, Bube).
The embellished design and manufacturer's logo commonly displayed on the
Ace of SpadesAt least in English-speaking countries, the ace of spades is traditionally seen as the highest card in the deck of playing cards, although the actual value of the card varies from game to game...
began under the reign of
James I of EnglandJames VI and I was King of Scots as James VI from 24 July 1567 and King of England and Ireland as James I from the union of the English and Scottish crowns on 24 March 1603...
, who passed a law requiring an insignia on that card as proof of payment of a tax on local manufacture of cards. Until August 4, 1960, decks of playing cards printed and sold in the
United KingdomThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
were liable to tax under the
Stamp Act 1765The Stamp Act 1765 was a direct tax imposed by the British Parliament specifically on the colonies of British America. The act required that many printed materials in the colonies be produced on stamped paper produced in London, carrying an embossed revenue stamp...
, and the Ace of Spades carried an indication of the name of the printer and the fact that the tax had been paid. The packs were also sealed with a government
dutyDuty is a term that conveys a sense of moral commitment to someone or something. The moral commitment is the sort that results in action and it is not a matter of passive feeling or mere recognition...
wrapper.
Though specific design elements of the court cards are not relevant to game play and many differ between designs, a few are notable. The Jack of Spades, Jack of Hearts, and King of Diamonds are drawn in profile, while the rest of the court are shown in full face; these cards are commonly called "one-eyed". When deciding which cards are to be made wild in some games, the phrase "acey, deucey, one-eyed jack" (or "deuces, aces, one-eyed faces") is sometimes used, which means that
aceAn ace is a playing card. In the standard French deck, an ace has a single suit symbol located in the middle of the card, sometimes large and decorated, especially in the case of the Ace of Spades...
s, twos, and the one-eyed jacks are all wild. The King of Hearts is the only King with no mustache, and is also typically shown with a sword behind his head, making him appear to be stabbing himself. This leads to the nickname "suicide king". The axe held by the King of Diamonds is behind his head with the blade facing toward him. He is traditionally armed with an axe while the other three kings are armed with swords, and thus the King of Diamonds is sometimes referred to as "the man with the axe". This is the basis of the trump "one-eyed jacks and the man with the axe". The Jack of Diamonds is sometimes known as "laughing boy". The
Ace of SpadesAt least in English-speaking countries, the ace of spades is traditionally seen as the highest card in the deck of playing cards, although the actual value of the card varies from game to game...
, unique in its large, ornate spade, is sometimes said to be the death card, and in some games is used as a trump card. The
Queen of SpadesThe Queen is a playing card with a picture of a queen on it. The usual rank of a queen is as if it were 12 ....
usually holds a scepter and is sometimes known as "the bedpost queen", though more often she is called "Black Lady". In many decks, the Queen of Clubs holds a flower. She is thus known as the "flower Queen" (though in many playing cards from Germany and Sweden she is depicted with a fan) but this design element is among the most variable: the standard Bicycle Poker deck depicts all Queens with a flower styled according to their suit.
There are theories about whom the court cards represent. For example, the Queen of Hearts is believed by some to be a representation of
Elizabeth of YorkElizabeth of York was Queen consort of England as spouse of King Henry VII from 1486 until 1503, and mother of King Henry VIII of England....
—the
Queen consortA queen consort is the wife of a reigning king. A queen consort usually shares her husband's rank and holds the feminine equivalent of the king's monarchical titles. Historically, queens consort do not share the king regnant's political and military powers. Most queens in history were queens consort...
of
King Henry VII of EnglandHenry VII was King of England and Lord of Ireland from his seizing the crown on 22 August 1485 until his death on 21 April 1509, as the first monarch of the House of Tudor....
, or it is sometimes believed to be a representation of
Anne BoleynAnne Boleyn ;c.1501/1507 – 19 May 1536) was Queen of England from 1533 to 1536 as the second wife of Henry VIII of England and Marquess of Pembroke in her own right. Henry's marriage to Anne, and her subsequent execution, made her a key figure in the political and religious upheaval that was the...
, the second wife of Henry VIII. The United States Playing Card Company suggests that, in the past, the King of Hearts was
CharlemagneCharlemagne was King of the Franks from 768 and Emperor of the Romans from 800 to his death in 814. He expanded the Frankish kingdom into an empire that incorporated much of Western and Central Europe. During his reign, he conquered Italy and was crowned by Pope Leo III on 25 December 800...
, the King of Diamonds was
Julius CaesarGaius Julius Caesar was a Roman general and statesman and a distinguished writer of Latin prose. He played a critical role in the gradual transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire....
, the King of Clubs was
Alexander the Great, and the King of Spades was the Biblical King David (see
King (playing card)The king is a playing card with a picture of a king on it. The usual rank of a king is as if it were a 13; that is, above the queen. In some games, the king is the highest-ranked card; in others, the ace is higher...
). However, the Kings, Queens, and Jacks of standard Anglo-American cards today do not represent anyone in particular. They stem from designs produced in
RouenRouen , in northern France on the River Seine, is the capital of the Haute-Normandie region and the historic capital city of Normandy. Once one of the largest and most prosperous cities of medieval Europe , it was the seat of the Exchequer of Normandy in the Middle Ages...
before 1516, and, by 1540–67, these Rouen designs show well executed pictures in the court cards with the typical court costumes of the time. In these early cards, the Jack of Spades, Jack of Hearts, and King of Diamonds are shown from the rear, with their heads turned back over the shoulder so that they are seen in profile; however, the Rouen cards were so badly copied in England that the current designs are gross distortions of the originals.
Other oddities such as the lack of a moustache on the King of Hearts also have little significance. The King of Hearts did originally have a moustache, but it was lost by poor copying of the original design. Similarly, the objects carried by the court cards have no significance. They merely differentiate one court card from another and have also become distorted over time.
Some decks include additional design elements:
casinoIn modern English, a casino is a facility which houses and accommodates certain types of gambling activities. Casinos are most commonly built near or combined with hotels, restaurants, retail shopping, cruise ships or other tourist attractions...
blackjackBlackjack, also known as Twenty-one or Vingt-et-un , is the most widely played casino banking game in the world...
decks may include markings intended for a machine to check the ranks of cards. Many casino decks and solitaire decks have four indices instead of the usual two. Some decks have larger indices, often for use in
stud pokerStud poker is any of a number of poker variants in which each player receives a mix of face-down and face-up cards dealt in multiple betting rounds. Stud games are also typically non-positional games, meaning that the player who bets first on each round may change from round to round...
games, where being able to read cards from a distance is a benefit and hand sizes are small.
Some decks use
four colorsA four-color deck is identical to the standard French deck except for the color of the suits. In a typical four-color deck, hearts are red and spades are black as usual, but clubs are green and diamonds are blue. However, other color combinations have been used over the centuries.In 1819, J.Y...
for the suits in order to make it easier to tell them apart: The most common set of colors for poker is black spades, red hearts, blue diamonds and green clubs (
). Another common color set is borrowed from the German suits and uses green spades (leaves) and yellow diamonds (bells) with red hearts and black clubs (
).
Many modern decks have bar code markings on the edge of the face to enable them to be sorted by machine (for playing duplicate bridge, especially simultaneous events where the same hands may be played at many different venues).
When giving the full written name of a specific card, the rank is given first followed by the suit, e.g., "Ace of Spades". Shorthand notation may list the rank first "A♠" (as is typical when discussing
pokerPoker is a family of card games that share betting rules and usually hand rankings. Poker games differ in how the cards are dealt, how hands may be formed, whether the high or low hand wins the pot in a showdown , limits on bet sizes, and how many rounds of betting are allowed.In most modern poker...
) or list the suit first (as is typical in listing several cards in bridge) "♠AKQ".
Tens may be either abbreviated to T or written as 10.
Example set of 52 poker playing cards
| Suit |
AceAn ace is a playing card. In the standard French deck, an ace has a single suit symbol located in the middle of the card, sometimes large and decorated, especially in the case of the Ace of Spades...
|
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
8 |
9 |
10 |
Jack A Jack, also Knave, is a playing card with a picture of a man on it. The usual rank of a jack, within its suit, is as if it were an 11 ....
|
Queen The Queen is a playing card with a picture of a queen on it. The usual rank of a queen is as if it were 12 ....
|
King The king is a playing card with a picture of a king on it. The usual rank of a king is as if it were a 13; that is, above the queen. In some games, the king is the highest-ranked card; in others, the ace is higher...
|
| Spades |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Hearts |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Diamonds |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Clubs |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Piquet
The piquet deck is a subset of the French-suited 52-card deck, with all values from 2 through 6 in each suit removed. The resulting 32-card deck is notable for its use in a variety of games; a trick-taking game from the 14th century,
PiquetPiquet is an early 16th-century trick-taking card game for two players.- History :Piquet has long been regarded as one of the all-time great card games still being played. It was first mentioned on a written reference dating to 1535, in Gargantua and Pantagruel by Rabelais...
, gave the deck its most common name, and the game of
BeloteBelote is a 32-card trick-taking game played in France, and is currently one of the most popular card games in that country. It was invented around 1920, probably from Klaverjas, Klaverjassen, a game played since at least the 17th century in the Netherlands...
, currently the most popular card game in France, also uses this deck. West German players adopted the deck for the game of Skat (the traditional Skat deck uses German suits; see below). Two of these decks are used in the game of
BeziqueBezique is a 19th-century French melding and trick-taking card game for two players derived from Marriage via Briscan by the addition of more scoring features, notably the peculiar liaison of Q and J, under the names Bésigue, Binokel, Pinochle, etc., according to the country.-History:Bezique was...
.
Pinochle/Doppelkopf
The game of
PinochlePinochle or Binocle is a trick-taking game typically for two to four players and played with a 48 card deck. Derived from the card game bezique, players score points by trick-taking and also by forming combinations of cards into melds. It is thus considered part of a "trick-and-meld" category...
, which evolved from the French game
BeziqueBezique is a 19th-century French melding and trick-taking card game for two players derived from Marriage via Briscan by the addition of more scoring features, notably the peculiar liaison of Q and J, under the names Bésigue, Binokel, Pinochle, etc., according to the country.-History:Bezique was...
, uses a deck composed of two copies of each Anglo-American card with values from 9 through King and Ace. A deck with the same composition, but different card art, is available in Europe for the very popular German game of
DoppelkopfDoppelkopf , also abbreviated to "Doko," is a trick-taking card game for four players. The origins of this game are not well known; it is assumed that it originated from the game Schafkopf....
, which derived from the game
SheepsheadSheepshead or Sheephead is a trick-taking card game related to the Skat family of games. It is the Americanized version of a card game that originated in Central Europe in the late 18th century under the German name Schafkopf. Although Schafkopf literally means "sheepshead", it has nothing to do...
and is related to Skat.
Tarot
The 78-card
TarotThe tarot |trionfi]] and later as tarocchi, tarock, and others) is a pack of cards , used from the mid-15th century in various parts of Europe to play a group of card games such as Italian tarocchini and French tarot...
deck, and subsets of it, are used for a variety of European trick-taking games. The Tarot is distinguished from most other decks by the use of a separate trump suit of 21 cards, and one Fool, whose role varies according to the specific game. Additionally, it differs from the 52-card deck in the use of one additional court card in each suit, the Cavalier or Knight. In Europe, the deck is known primarily as a playing card deck; in the Americas, the deck is primarily known for its use in
cartomancyCartomancy is fortune-telling or divination using a deck of cards. Forms of cartomancy appeared soon after playing cards were first introduced into Europe in the 14th century...
; the trumps and fool making up the
Major ArcanaThe Major Arcana or trumps are a suit of twenty-two cards in the tarot deck. They serve as a permanent trump suit in games played with the tarot deck, and are distinguished from the four standard suits collectively known as the Minor Arcana...
while the 56 suited cards make up the
Minor Arcana|thumb|[[King of Swords]] card from a Minor Arcana deckThe Minor Arcana of occult or divinatory tarot refers to the portion of a Tarot deck that consists of 56 cards. The Minor Arcana are roughly similar to the cards found in a common deck of playing cards...
.
The origins of the tarot deck are thought to be
ItalianItaly , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
, with the oldest surviving examples dating from the mid 15th century in Milan, and using the traditional Latin
suitsIn playing cards, a suit is one of several categories into which the cards of a deck are divided. Most often, each card bears one of several symbols showing to which suit it belongs; the suit may alternatively or in addition be indicated by the color printed on the card...
of Swords, Cups, Coins and Staves (representing the four main classes of feudal society; military, clergy, mercantile trade, and agriculture). It is generally thought that the tarot was invented between 1411 and 1425 by adding trump cards to a deck format that was already popular in Italy as of this period, having been introduced from North Africa in the mid 14th century. The deck spread from Italy to Germanic countries, where the Latin suits evolved into the suits of Leaves (or Shields), Hearts (or Roses), Bells, and Acorns, and a combination of Latin and Germanic suit pictures and names resulted in the internationally recognized French suits of Spades, Hearts, Diamonds and Clubs. It was a simplification of this French-suited tarot deck by removing the trumps that resulted in the English deck, popularized by British colonization and the gentleman's game Brag. The English deck would eventually become the internationally recognized 52-card deck.
The trumps originally represented characters and ideals of increasing power, from the Magician and High Priestess of the 1 and 2 of trumps to the Sun, Judgement and the World at the high end. Allegorical meanings for each card existed as of the earliest days of the deck, but it wasn't until the late 18th century that the works of
Antoine Court de GebelinAntoine Court who named himself Antoine Court de Gébelin was a former Protestant pastor, born at Nîmes, who initiated the interpretation of the Tarot as an arcane repository of timeless esoteric wisdom in 1781.-Early life:...
made decks based on the Tarot de Marseille popular for
divinatoryDivination is the attempt to gain insight into a question or situation by way of an occultic standardized process or ritual...
purposes.
From this point, the evolution of decks for cartomancy and for gaming diverged; the "reading tarots" based on the symbolic designs of the Tarot de Marseille (which were modified slightly to produce the widely known Rider-Waite deck) kept the older style of full-length character art, specific character meanings for the 21 trumps, and the use of the Latin suits (although most of the reading tarots in use today derive from the French Tarot de Marseille). On the other hand, "playing tarots", especially those of France and the Germanic regions, had by the end of the 19th century evolved into a form more resembling the modern playing card deck, with corner indices and easily identifiable number and court cards. The use of the traditional characters cards for the trumps was largely discarded in favor of more whimsical scenes. The
Tarot NouveauThe Tarot Nouveau, French Tarot Nouveau or Bourgeois Tarot deck is a general style of tarot playing card deck. The Tarot Nouveau differs from other styles of tarot deck, such as the Tarot of Marseilles and Rider-Waite decks, in that the Tarot Nouveau is designed solely for playing the various tarot...
is an example of the current style of playing tarot, though the artwork and design of this deck can be traced back to the 1890s. The Italian and Spanish Tarocchi decks, however, have largely kept the traditional character identifications of each trump, as well as the Latin suits, though these decks are used almost exclusively for gaming. Tarocco Bolognese and Tarocco Piedmontese are examples of Italian-suited playing tarot decks.
Sets consisting of 56 Tarot playing card have 14 cards of each suit: clubs, diamonds, hearts and spades.
Italian
Italian playing cards most commonly consist of a deck of 40 cards (4 suits going 1 to 7 plus 3 face cards), and are used for playing Italian regional games such as
ScopaScopa is an Italian card game, and one of the two major national card games in Italy. It is also popular in Brazil, brought in by Italian immigrants, mostly in the Scopa di Quindici variation...
or
BriscolaBriscola , one of Italy's most popular games together with Scopa and Tressette, and a little-changed descendant of Brusquembille, the ancestor of Briscan and...
. 52 (or more rarely 36) card sets are also found in the north. Since these cards first appeared in the late 14th century when each
regionThe regions of Italy are the first-level administrative divisions of the state, constituting its first NUTS administrative level. There are twenty regions, of which five are constitutionally given a broader amount of autonomy granted by special statutes....
in Italy was a separately ruled country, there is no official Italian pattern. There are sixteen official regional patterns in use in different parts of the country (about one per
regionThe regions of Italy are the first-level administrative divisions of the state, constituting its first NUTS administrative level. There are twenty regions, of which five are constitutionally given a broader amount of autonomy granted by special statutes....
). These sixteen patterns are split amongst four groups:
- Northern Italian Suits — Triestine
Trieste is a city and seaport in northeastern Italy. It is situated towards the end of a narrow strip of land lying between the Adriatic Sea and Italy's border with Slovenia, which lies almost immediately south and east of the city...
, TrevigianeTreviso is a city and comune in Veneto, northern Italy. It is the capital of the province of Treviso and the municipality has 82,854 inhabitants : some 3,000 live within the Venetian walls or in the historical and monumental center, some 80,000 live in the urban center proper, while the city...
, TrentineTrento is an Italian city located in the Adige River valley in Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol. It is the capital of Trentino...
, Primiera BologneseBologna is the capital city of Emilia-Romagna, in the Po Valley of Northern Italy. The city lies between the Po River and the Apennine Mountains, more specifically, between the Reno River and the Savena River. Bologna is a lively and cosmopolitan Italian college city, with spectacular history,...
, BergamascheBergamo is a town and comune in Lombardy, Italy, about 40 km northeast of Milan. The comune is home to over 120,000 inhabitants. It is served by the Orio al Serio Airport, which also serves the Province of Bergamo, and to a lesser extent the metropolitan area of Milan...
, BresciaBrescia is a city and comune in the region of Lombardy in northern Italy. It is situated at the foot of the Alps, between the Mella and the Naviglio, with a population of around 197,000. It is the second largest city in Lombardy, after the capital, Milan...
ne
- Spanish-like Suits — Napoletane
Naples is a city in Southern Italy, situated on the country's west coast by the Gulf of Naples. Lying between two notable volcanic regions, Mount Vesuvius and the Phlegraean Fields, it is the capital of the region of Campania and of the province of Naples...
, SardeSardinia is the second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea . It is an autonomous region of Italy, and the nearest land masses are the French island of Corsica, the Italian Peninsula, Sicily, Tunisia and the Spanish Balearic Islands.The name Sardinia is from the pre-Roman noun *sard[],...
, RomagnoleRomagna is an Italian historical region that approximately corresponds to the south-eastern portion of present-day Emilia-Romagna. Traditionally, it is limited by the Apennines to the south-west, the Adriatic to the east, and the rivers Reno and Sillaro to the north and west...
, SicilianeSicily is a region of Italy, and is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. Along with the surrounding minor islands, it constitutes an autonomous region of Italy, the Regione Autonoma Siciliana Sicily has a rich and unique culture, especially with regard to the arts, music, literature,...
, PiacentinePiacenza is a city and comune in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern Italy. It is the capital of the province of Piacenza...
.
- French Suits — Genovesi
Genoa |Ligurian]] Zena ; Latin and, archaically, English Genua) is a city and an important seaport in northern Italy, the capital of the Province of Genoa and of the region of Liguria....
, LombardeLombardy is one of the 20 regions of Italy. The capital is Milan. One-sixth of Italy's population lives in Lombardy and about one fifth of Italy's GDP is produced in this region, making it the most populous and richest region in the country and one of the richest in the whole of Europe...
or MilanMilan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...
esi, ToscaneTuscany is a region in Italy. It has an area of about 23,000 square kilometres and a population of about 3.75 million inhabitants. The regional capital is Florence ....
, PiemontesiPiedmont is one of the 20 regions of Italy. It has an area of 25,402 square kilometres and a population of about 4.4 million. The capital of Piedmont is Turin. The main local language is Piedmontese. Occitan is also spoken by a minority in the Occitan Valleys situated in the Provinces of...
.
- German Suits — Salisburghesi
-Population development:In 1935, the population significantly increased when Salzburg absorbed adjacent municipalities. After World War II, numerous refugees found a new home in the city. New residential space was created for American soldiers of the postwar Occupation, and could be used for...
used in South TyrolSouth Tyrol , also known by its Italian name Alto Adige, is an autonomous province in northern Italy. It is one of the two autonomous provinces that make up the autonomous region of Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol. The province has an area of and a total population of more than 500,000 inhabitants...
The suits are coins (sometimes suns or sunbursts) (
Denari in Italian), swords (
Spade), cups (
Coppe) and clubs (sometimes batons
Bastoni), and each suit contains an ace (or one), numbers two through seven, and three face cards. The face cards are:
- Re (king), the highest valued — a man standing, wearing a crown
- Cavallo (lit. horse) [italo-Spanish suits] — a man sitting on a horse / or Donna (lit. woman from Latin domina = mistress) [French suits] — a standing woman with a crown
- Fante (lit. infantry soldier) — a younger figure standing, without a crown
The Spanish-like-suit knave (
fante - the lowest face card) is depicted as a woman, and is sometimes referred to as
donna like the next higher face card of the French-suit deck; this, when coupled with the French usage, which puts a queen, also called
donna (woman) in Italian and not
regina (queen), as the mid-valued face card, can very occasionally lead to a swap of the value of the French-suit
donna (or more rarely of the international-card Queen) and the knave (or jack).
Unlike Anglo-American cards, some Italian cards do not have any numbers (or letters) identifying their value. The cards' value is determined by identifying the face card or counting the number of suit characters.
Spanish
The traditional
Spanish deckThe Baraja is a deck of playing cards associated with Spain, it is usually called Baraja Española . It has four suits and is usually made up of 40 cards...
(referred to as
baraja española in Spanish) uses Latin suit symbols. Being a Latin-suited deck (like the Italian deck), it is organized into four
palos (suits) that closely match those of the Italian-suited Tarot deck:
oros ("golds" or coins),
copas (beakers or cups),
espadas (swords) and
bastos (batons or clubs). Certain decks include two "comodines" (
jokersJoker is a special type of playing card found in most modern decks, or else a type of tile in some Mahjong game sets.-Name:It is believed that the term "Joker" comes from a mispronunciation of Jucker, the German/Alsatian name for the game Euchre. The card was originally introduced in about 1860 for...
) as well.
The cards (
cartas in Spanish) are all numbered, but unlike in the standard Anglo-French deck, the card numbered 10 is the first of the court cards (instead of a card depicting ten coins/cups/swords/batons); so each suit has only twelve cards. The three court or face cards in each suit are as follows:
la sota ("the knave" or jack, numbered 10 and equivalent to the Anglo-French card J),
el caballo ("the horse", horseman, knight or cavalier, numbered 11 and used instead of the Anglo-French card Q; note the Tarot decks have both a queen and a knight of each suit, while the Anglo-French deck uses the former, and the Spanish deck uses the latter), and finally
el rey ("the king", numbered 12 and equivalent to the Anglo-French card K). However, most Spanish games involve forty-card decks, with the 8s and 9s removed, similar to the standard Italian deck.
The box that goes around the figure has a mark to distinguish the suit without showing all of your cards: The cups have one interruption, the swords two, the clubs three, and the gold none. This mark is called "la pinta" and gave rise to the expression:
le conocí por la pinta ("I knew him by his markings").
The Baraja have been widely considered to be part of the occult in many Latin-American countries, yet they continue to be used widely for card games and gambling, especially in Spain, which does not use the Anglo-French deck. Among other places, the Baraja have appeared in
One Hundred Years of SolitudeOne Hundred Years of Solitude , by Gabriel García Márquez, is a novel which tells the multi-generational story of the Buendía family, whose patriarch, José Arcadio Buendía, founds the town of Macondo, the metaphoric Colombia...
and other Hispanic and Latin American literature. The Spanish deck is used not only in Spain, but also in other countries where Spain maintained an influence (
e.g.,
MexicoThe United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
,
ChileChile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...
ArgentinaArgentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
and most of
Hispanic AmericaHispanic America or Spanish America is the region comprising the American countries inhabited by Spanish-speaking populations.These countries have significant commonalities with each other and with Spain, whose colonies they formerly were...
, the
PhilippinesThe Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
and
Puerto RicoPuerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of both the United States Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.Puerto Rico comprises an...
)
1. Among the games played with this deck are:
el musMus is a popular Spanish card game, allegedly the most played card game in Spain. It is a trick-taking card game, with vying aspects, originating from the Navarre and Basque regions in Spain. From there it spread all over the country, where it is now the most played card game, spawning countless...
(a very popular and highly regarded vying game of
BasqueThe Basque Country is the name given to the home of the Basque people in the western Pyrenees that spans the border between France and Spain on the Atlantic coast....
origin),
la briscaBriscola , one of Italy's most popular games together with Scopa and Tressette, and a little-changed descendant of Brusquembille, the ancestor of Briscan and...
,
la pocha,
el tuteTute is an Italian trick-taking card game for two to four players. During the XIX century, the game spread in Spain, becoming one of the most popular card games in the country. The name of the game was later modified by Spanish speakers, that started calling the game Tute...
(with many variations),
el guiñote,
la escobaEscoba is a variant of the Italian fishing card game Scopa, which means "broom", a name that refers to the situation in the game where you "sweep" all of the cards from the board in one turn. The game is usually played with a deck of traditional Spanish playing cards, called naipes.-Rules:The...
del quince (a
trick-taking gameA trick-taking game is a card game or tile-based game in which play centers on a series of finite rounds or units of play, called tricks. The object of such games then may be closely tied to the number of tricks taken, as in plain-trick games such as Whist, Contract Bridge, Napoleon, Rowboat, and...
),
el julepeJulepe , , is a South American trick-taking gambling card game of Spanish origin, similar to the English five-card Loo, and best for six players. It spread rapidly across the Spanish-American countries during the 19th century....
,
el cinquillo,
las siete y media,
la mona,
el truc (or
trucoTruco is a variant of Truc and a popular trick-taking card game originary from Valencia and Balearic Islands and played in Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, Italy , Uruguay, southern Chile and Venezuela...
),
el cuajo (a matching game from the Philippines),
el jamón,
el tonto,
el hijoputa,
el mentiroso"Mentiroso" is the first single released internationally by Enrique Iglesias from his fourth full-Spanish album Quizás.-Song information:The track was written by Cheín García-Alonso and Enrique Iglesias. It was released to U.S...
,
el cucoThe Coco is a mythical ghost-monster; equivalent to the boogeyman, found in many Hispanic and Lusophone countries. He can also be considered a Hispanic version of a bugbear, as it is a commonly used figure of speech representing an irrational or exaggerated fear...
,
las parejas and
las cuarentaCuarenta is the national card game of Ecuador. It is a fishing game played with a Baraja, a pack of 40 Spanish playing cards. The game can also be played with the standard 52 card pack of Anglo-American playing cards, but all 10s, 9s and 8s are omitted .This card game is almost exclusively played...
(a fishing game, the national card game of
EcuadorEcuador , officially the Republic of Ecuador is a representative democratic republic in South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and by the Pacific Ocean to the west. It is one of only two countries in South America, along with Chile, that do not have a border...
).
In Spain, games of Anglo-American origin such as poker and blackjack are played with the international 52-card deck, which is called a
baraja de poker.
Switzerland
In Switzerland, the national game is
JassJass is a trick taking card game and a distinctive branch of the Marriage family, popularly supposed to be the progenitor of the American game of Pinochle...
. It is played with decks of 36 cards. West of the
Brünig-Napf-Reuss lineThe Brünig-Napf-Reuss line forms a geographical boundary in traditional Swiss culture . Running from the Brünig Pass along the Napf region to the Reuss River , it partly separates western and eastern varieties of High Alemannic, although some places east of the line belong to the western dialect...
, a French-style 36-card deck is used, with numbers from 6 to 10, Jacks, Queens, Kings and Aces. The same kind of deck is used in
GraubündenGraubünden or Grisons is the largest and easternmost canton of Switzerland. The canton shares borders with the cantons of Ticino, Uri, Glarus and St. Gallen and international borders with Italy, Austria and Liechtenstein...
and in parts of
ThurgauThurgau is a northeast canton of Switzerland. The population, , is . In 2007, there were a total of 47,390 who were resident foreigners. The capital is Frauenfeld.-History:...
.
In
Central SwitzerlandCentral Switzerland is the region of the Alpine foothills geographically the heart and historically the origin of Switzerland, with the cantons of Uri, Schwyz, Obwalden, Nidwalden, Lucerne and Zug....
,
ZurichThe Canton of Zurich has a population of . The canton is located in the northeast of Switzerland and the city of Zurich is its capital. The official language is German, but people speak the local Swiss German dialect called Züritüütsch...
,
SchaffhausenThe Canton of is a canton of Switzerland. The principal city and capital of the canton is Schaffhausen.- History:Schaffhausen was a city-state in the Middle Ages, documented to have struck its own coins starting in 1045. It was then known as Villa Scafhusun. Around 1049 Count Eberhard von...
and
Eastern SwitzerlandEastern Switzerland is the common name of the region situated to the north of Glarus Alps, with the cantons of Schaffhausen, Thurgau, St. Gallen, Appenzell Ausserrhoden, Appenzell Innerrhoden and Glarus...
, the prevalent deck consists of 36 playing cards with the following suits: Roses, Bells, Acorns and Shields (in German: Rosen, Schellen, Eichel und Schilten). The ranks of the alternate deck, from low to high, are: 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 ("Banner"),
Unter (lower jack),
Ober (higher jack), King and Ace.
German
GermanGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
suits may have different appearances. Many Eastern and Southern Germans prefer decks with Hearts, Bells, Leaves, and Acorns (for Hearts, Diamonds, Spades, and Clubs), as mentioned above. In the game Skat,
East GermanThe German Democratic Republic , informally called East Germany by West Germany and other countries, was a socialist state established in 1949 in the Soviet zone of occupied Germany, including East Berlin of the Allied-occupied capital city...
players used the German deck, while players in Western Germany mainly used the French deck. After the reunification a compromise deck was created for official Skat tournaments, with French symbols but German colors (green Spades and yellow Diamonds).
Central European
The cards of
HungaryThe culture of Hungary has a distinctive style of its own in Hungary, diverse and varied, starting from the capital city of Budapest on the Danube, to the Great Plain bordering Ukraine. Hungary was formerly one half of Austria-Hungary. Hungary has a rich folk tradition, for example: embroideries,...
,
AustriaAustrian culture has largely been influenced by its past and present neighbors: Italy, Poland, Germany, Hungary and Bohemia.-Music:Vienna, the capital city of Austria has long been an important center of musical innovation. Composers of the 18th and 19th centuries were drawn to the city by the...
,
SloveniaSlovenia's first book was printed by the Protestant reformer Primož Trubar . It was actually two books, Katekizem and Abecednik, which was published in 1550 in Tübingen, Germany....
, the
Czech RepublicThis article is about the culture of the Czech Republic.-Festivities and traditions:Czech people celebrate Christmas every year, beginning with a dinner on 24 December. The tables for this dinner can only be set for an even number of guests, because an odd number will bring bad luck...
, Northern
CroatiaThe culture of Croatia has roots in a long history: the Croatian people have been inhabiting the area for fourteen centuries, but there are important remnants of the earlier periods still preserved in the country.- Ancient Heritage :...
,
SlovakiaThe culture of Slovakia is the result of various folk traditions and because of its position in the Central Europe, it is also influenced by Austrian, German, Hungarian and Slavic cultures....
, Western
RomaniaRomania has a unique culture, which is the product of its geography and of its distinct historical evolution. Like Romanians themselves, it is defined as the meeting point of three regions: Central Europe, Eastern Europe, and the Balkans, but cannot be truly included in any of them...
,
TranscarpathiaCarpathian Ruthenia is a region in Eastern Europe, mostly located in western Ukraine's Zakarpattia Oblast , with smaller parts in easternmost Slovakia , Poland's Lemkovyna and Romanian Maramureş.It is...
in
UkraineUkrainian culture refers to the culture associated with the country of Ukraine and sometimes with ethnic Ukrainians across the globe. It contains elements of other Eastern European cultures as well as some Western European influences. Within Ukraine, there are a number of other ethnic groups with...
,
VojvodinaVojvodina, officially called Autonomous Province of Vojvodina is an autonomous province of Serbia. Its capital and largest city is Novi Sad...
in Serbia and
South TyrolSouth Tyrol , also known by its Italian name Alto Adige, is an autonomous province in northern Italy. It is one of the two autonomous provinces that make up the autonomous region of Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol. The province has an area of and a total population of more than 500,000 inhabitants...
use the same suits (Hearts, Bells, Leaves and Acorns) as the cards of Southern and Eastern Germany. They usually have a deck of 32 or 36 cards. The numbering includes VII, VIII, IX, X, Under, Over, King and Ace. Some variations with 36 cards have also the number VI. The VI in bells also has the function like a
jokerJoker is a special type of playing card found in most modern decks, or else a type of tile in some Mahjong game sets.-Name:It is believed that the term "Joker" comes from a mispronunciation of Jucker, the German/Alsatian name for the game Euchre. The card was originally introduced in about 1860 for...
in some games and it is named
Welli or
Weli.
These cards are illustrated with a special picture series that was born in the times before the
Hungarian Revolution of 1848The Hungarian Revolution of 1848 was one of many of the European Revolutions of 1848 and closely linked to other revolutions of 1848 in the Habsburg areas...
, when revolutionary movements were awakening all over in Europe. The Aces show the four
seasonA season is a division of the year, marked by changes in weather, ecology, and hours of daylight.Seasons result from the yearly revolution of the Earth around the Sun and the tilt of the Earth's axis relative to the plane of revolution...
s: the Ace of Hearts is Spring, the Ace of Bells is Summer, the Ace of Leaves is Autumn and the Ace of Acorns is Winter. The characters of the Under and Over cards were taken from the drama
William Tell, the legendary Swiss freedom fighter, written by
Friedrich SchillerJohann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller was a German poet, philosopher, historian, and playwright. During the last seventeen years of his life , Schiller struck up a productive, if complicated, friendship with already famous and influential Johann Wolfgang von Goethe...
in 1804, which was shown at Kolozsvár,
HungaryHungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
(now
Cluj-NapocaCluj-Napoca , commonly known as Cluj, is the fourth most populous city in Romania and the seat of Cluj County in the northwestern part of the country. Geographically, it is roughly equidistant from Bucharest , Budapest and Belgrade...
,
RomaniaRomania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
) in 1827. It was long believed that the card was invented in
ViennaVienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
at the Card Painting Workshop of
Ferdinand PiatnikFerdinand Piatnik was an Austrian-Hungarian card painter and manufacturer.Born at Ofen, now Budapest, then part of the Austrian Empire, he was educated in Bratislava. He bought an Austrian card company off Anton Moser in 1843 and made it one of the most successful game manufacturing companies in...
, however in 1974 the very first deck was found in an English private collection, and it has shown the name of the inventor and creator of deck as József Schneider, a Master Card Painter at Pest, and the date of its creation as 1837. Had he not chosen the Swiss characters of Schiller's play, had he chosen Hungarian heroes or freedom fighters, his deck of cards would never have made it into distribution, due to the heavy censorship of
the government at the timeAustria-Hungary , more formally known as the Kingdoms and Lands Represented in the Imperial Council and the Lands of the Holy Hungarian Crown of Saint Stephen, was a constitutional monarchic union between the crowns of the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary in...
. Interestingly, although the characters on the cards are Swiss, these cards are unknown in Switzerland.
BavarianBavarian is the adjective form of the German state of Bavaria, and refers to people of ancestry from Bavaria. Bavarian may also refer to:* Austro-Bavarian, a group of closely related dialects of German, spoken in parts of Bavaria, most of Austria and the Alto Adige/Südtirol* Bavarian cream, a...
playing cards are also widespread in the Czech Republic.
Games that are played with this deck in Hungary include Skat,
UltiUlti or Ultimó, is Hungary's national trick-taking card game for three players. Though virtually unknown outside its home borders, Ulti is well worth exploring, as it offers some unusual and intriguing features.-History:...
(aka Ultimó), Snapszer (or 66), Zsírozás, Fire, Preferánsz, Makaó,
LórumA lorum is a male genital piercing, placed horizontally on the underside of the penis at its base, where the penis meets the scrotum. The word "lorum" is a portmanteau of the words "low" and "frenum", so named because it is essentially a very low-placed frenum piercing.Much like the frenum piercing...
, Piros pacsi (Red paw), Piros papucs (Red slipper) and Ötleadás. In
CroatiaCroatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of the Mitteleuropa, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. The country is divided into 20 counties and the city of Zagreb. Croatia covers ...
and
SloveniaSlovenia , officially the Republic of Slovenia , is a country in Central and Southeastern Europe touching the Alps and bordering the Mediterranean. Slovenia borders Italy to the west, Croatia to the south and east, Hungary to the northeast, and Austria to the north, and also has a small portion of...
these cards are also commonly used for a game called
BelotBelot also Bridge belot and Бридж-белот is the name of a French trick-taking card game very popular in Bulgaria, in some parts of Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Macedonia , and in Saudi Arabia...
(also popular in
BulgariaBulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east...
and
ArmeniaArmenia , officially the Republic of Armenia , is a landlocked mountainous country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia...
).
In Czech republic these cards are called
mariášky or
mariášové karty (both means
cards for Mariáš), or sometimes
pikety. The cards are used for almost all common card games in Czech lands, including the most famous
MariášSixty-six or Schnapsen is a fast 5- or 6-card point-trick game of the marriage type for 2–4 players, played with 20 or 24 cards. First recorded in 1718 under the name Mariagen-Spiel, it is the national card game of Austria and also popular in Germany and Hungary.Closely related games for various...
, and very popular games like Prší (~
SwitchSwitch, also called Two Four Jacks or Black Jack, Irish Switch, is a shedding-type card game for two or more players that is popular in the United Kingdom, and as alternative incarnations in other regions. The sole aim of Switch is to discard all of the cards in one's hand; the first player to play...
) or
Oko (slightly different Czech version of
BlackjackBlackjack, also known as Twenty-one or Vingt-et-un , is the most widely played casino banking game in the world...
).
The most common game played in Western Romania (Transylvania and Banat) is
CruceCruce is a surname, and may refer to:* Lee Cruce , second Governor of Oklahoma* Petrus de Cruce , French music theorist...
, a variation of Snapszer, most commonly played in 2 pairs, with team members facing each other, hence the name (Cruce = Romanian for
Cross).
Russia
In Russia and many countries of the former USSR, the Russian 36-card deck is the most common one. Its numbering includes 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, Valet (Jack), Dama (Queen), Korol (King) and Tuz (Ace). The suits are identical to French ones. This deck is used for several Russian card games such
DurakDurak is a card game that is popular throughout most of the post-Soviet states.The object of the game is to get rid of all one's cards. At the end of the game, the last player with cards in their hand is referred to as the fool .-Set up:...
and
Ochko (a variant of Blackjack).
Another common Russian deck is the Preferans deck that is used for the card
game of the same namePreferans is an Eastern European 10-card plain-trick game with bidding, played by three players with a 32-card Piquet deck. It is a sophisticated variant of the Austrian game Préférence, which in turn descends from Spanish Ombre and French Boston....
. It begins with sevens and is identical to the Piquet deck.
East Asia
The standard 52-card deck is commonly known as a "poker" deck in
TaiwanTaiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...
,
JapanJapan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
,
ChinaChinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
, and
South KoreaThe Republic of Korea , , is a sovereign state in East Asia, located on the southern portion of the Korean Peninsula. It is neighbored by the People's Republic of China to the west, Japan to the east, North Korea to the north, and the East China Sea and Republic of China to the south...
. Alternatively, a more common name in Japan and Korea for the same deck is trump (トランプ torampu, 트럼프 teureompeu respectively) which comes from the term
trump cardTrump Card was an American syndicated game show that aired from September 10, 1990 to September 6, 1991 and was hosted by Jimmy Cefalo. Debi Massey served as hostess and Chuck Reilly was the announcer. The show was produced by Telepictures Productions, Createl, Ltd., & Fiedler-Berlin Productions...
. These cards are most often used for
baccaratBaccarat is a card game, played at casinos and by gamblers. It is believed to have been introduced into France from Italy during the reign of King Charles VIII , and it is similar to Faro and Basset...
and
blackjackBlackjack, also known as Twenty-one or Vingt-et-un , is the most widely played casino banking game in the world...
in casinos, or deciding the order of play or challenge in games of billiards. Poker itself and other western games are relatively unknown; however, there do exist East Asian games using the poker deck, such as Daifugo and
Two-ten-jackTwo-ten-jack is a Japanese trick-taking card game for two players that takes its name from the three highest-scoring cards in the game: the 2, 10 and Jack in three different suits.-Preliminaries:...
. Home and online card games in east Asia such as Koi-Koi and Go-Stop use a
Karutais a Japanese card game.The basic idea of any karuta game is to be able to quickly determine which card out of an array of cards is required and then to grab the card before it is grabbed by an opponent. There are various types of cards which can be used to play karuta...
, such as
hanafudaare playing cards of Japanese origin that are used to play a number of games. The name literally translates as "flower cards". The name also refers to games played with those cards.-History:...
,
uta-garutaare a kind of karuta, Japanese traditional playing cards. It is also the name of the game in which they are used. The game is played mostly on Japanese New Year's holidays. On each card, a poem is written, and there are a total of 100 poems. The standard collection of the poems used is called...
or
kabufudaKabufuda are Japanese playing cards used for gambling games such as Oicho-Kabu and Tehonbiki.Kabufuda cards, like the related hanafuda are smaller and stiffer than Western playing cards. A deck contains 40 cards, with designs representing the numbers 1 through 10...
deck in Japan, and the equivalent hwatu deck in Korea.
Mongolia
Mongolia's most popular card game is called
Muushig and. It uses a 32-card deck in four suits with the ranks in order from lowest to highest being 7, 8, 9, 10, Боол (Jack), Хатан (Queen), Ноён (King) and Тамга (Ace). For 2 or 5 players, all 32 cards are used, but for 3 players, only 24 are used, and for four players, 28.
The game starts with each player at a score of 15. The object of each round is to win as many tricks as possible.
If a player wins no tricks, his score is increased by 5. The player who first reaches 0 points or less wins the game.
India
Playing cards is a common pastime in India. Playing cards are referred to as Taash in the language Hindi/Urdu. The most popular card game in India is
Indian RummyIndian Rummy is a popular card game in India with little variation from original rummy. It may be considered a cross between Rummy500 and Gin Rummy. It is played with 13 cards and at least two decks, and sometimes jokers...
. There are several popular card games in India including Bluff, Twenty nine, Bridge etc.
Accessible playing cards
Playing cards have been adapted for use by the visually impaired by the inclusion of large-print and/or
brailleThe Braille system is a method that is widely used by blind people to read and write, and was the first digital form of writing.Braille was devised in 1825 by Louis Braille, a blind Frenchman. Each Braille character, or cell, is made up of six dot positions, arranged in a rectangle containing two...
characters as part of the card. Both standard card decks and decks for specific games such as UNO are commonly adapted. Large-print cards are also commonly used by the elderly. In addition to increasing the size of the suit symbol and the denomination text, large-print cards commonly reduce the visual complexity of the images for simpler identification. They may also omit the patterns of pips in favor of one large pip to identify suit. Oversize cards are sometimes used but are uncommon. These can assist with ease of handling and to allow for larger text.
No universal standards for braille playing cards exist. There are many national and producer variations. In most cases each card is marked with two braille characters in the same location as the normal corner markings. The two characters can appear in either vertical (one character below another) or horizontal (two characters side by side). In either case one character identifies the card
suit and the other the card
denomination. 1 for
ace, 2 through 9 for the numbered cards, X or the letter O for ten, J for
jack, Q for
queen, K for
king. The suits are variously marked using D for
diamond, S for
spade, C or X for
club and H or K for
heart.
Symbols in Unicode
The
UnicodeUnicode is a computing industry standard for the consistent encoding, representation and handling of text expressed in most of the world's writing systems...
standard for text encoding on computers defines 8 characters for card suits in the
Miscellaneous SymbolsThe Miscellaneous Symbols Unicode block contains various glyphs representing things from a variety of categories: Astrological, Astronomical, Chess, Dice, Ideological symbols, Musical notation, Political symbols, Recycling, Religious symbols, Trigrams, Warning signs and Weather.-Tables:Note: These...
block, at U+2660–2667. Unicode 6.0 adds a unified deck for
Minor Arcana|thumb|[[King of Swords]] card from a Minor Arcana deckThe Minor Arcana of occult or divinatory tarot refers to the portion of a Tarot deck that consists of 56 cards. The Minor Arcana are roughly similar to the cards found in a common deck of playing cards...
TarotThe tarot |trionfi]] and later as tarocchi, tarock, and others) is a pack of cards , used from the mid-15th century in various parts of Europe to play a group of card games such as Italian tarocchini and French tarot...
and the 52 cards of the modern Western deck, with 4 Knights, together with a character for "Playing Card Back" and two for black and white (or red) jokers in the block U+1F0A0–1F0FF. The complete
Major ArcanaThe Major Arcana or trumps are a suit of twenty-two cards in the tarot deck. They serve as a permanent trump suit in games played with the tarot deck, and are distinguished from the four standard suits collectively known as the Minor Arcana...
may be added at a later time.
Production techniques
The typical production process for a new deck starts with the choice between the most suitable material:
card stockCard stock, also called cover stock or pasteboard, is a paper stock that is thicker and more durable than normal writing or printing paper, but thinner and more flexible than other forms of paperboard. Card stock is often used for business cards, postcards, playing cards, catalog covers,...
or
plasticA plastic material is any of a wide range of synthetic or semi-synthetic organic solids used in the manufacture of industrial products. Plastics are typically polymers of high molecular mass, and may contain other substances to improve performance and/or reduce production costs...
. Playing cards made from plastic (Polyvinyl Chloride) will last longer as compared to paper playing cards.
Cards are printed on unique sheets that undergo a varnishing procedure in order to enhance the brightness and glow of the colors printed on the cards, as well as to increase their durability.
In today’s market, some high-quality products are available. There are some specific treatments on card surfaces, such as
calenderingCalendering is a finishing process used on cloth where fabric is folded in half and passed under rollers at high temperatures and pressures. Calendering is used on fabrics such as moire to produce its watered effect and also on cambric and some types of sateens.In preparation for calendering, the...
and linen finishing, that guarantee performance for either professional or domestic use.
The cards are printed on sheets, which are cut and arranged in bands (vertical stripes) before undergoing a cutting operation that cuts out the individual cards. After assembling the new decks, they pass through the corner-rounding process that will confer the final outline: the typical rectangular playing-card shape.
Finally, each deck is wrapped in
cellophaneCellophane is a thin, transparent sheet made of regenerated cellulose. Its low permeability to air, oils, greases, bacteria and water makes it useful for food packaging...
, inserted in its case and is ready for the final distribution.
See also
- Baraja (playing cards)
The Baraja is a deck of playing cards associated with Spain, it is usually called Baraja Española . It has four suits and is usually made up of 40 cards...
- Beer card
The beer card is a slang term used to describe the 7 of diamonds playing card, particularly in trick-taking card games, such as bridge.If a player wins the last trick of a hand with the 7 of diamonds, his partner must buy him a beer...
- Card game
A card game is any game using playing cards as the primary device with which the game is played, be they traditional or game-specific. Countless card games exist, including families of related games...
- Card manipulation
Card magic is the branch of conjuring that deals with creating magical effects using a deck of playing cards. Card magic is commonplace in magical performances, especially in close up magic or parlor magic and street magic. Some of the most recognized names in this field include John Scarne, Juan...
- Card throwing
Card throwing is the art of throwing standard playing cards. First popularized in the West among stage magicians, the art of throwing cards was called scaling. In 1997, a segment on MTV News:Unfiltered, featuring Jon W and the Fellas from Denver, Pennsylvania, introduced card throwing to a new...
- Cary Collection of Playing Cards
The Cary Collection of Playing Cards, held at the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library of Yale University in the USA, is one of the most significant assemblages of materials relating to playing cards and related ephemera in North America.- Overview :...
- Collectible card game
thumb|Players and their decksA collectible card game , also called a trading card game or customizable card game, is a game played using specially designed sets of playing cards...
- Dealer shoe
- French suited tarot
- Ganjifa
Ganjifa, or Gânjaphâ, is a card game that originated in Persia and became popular in India under the Mughal emperors in the 16th century.-Description:The name Ganjifa comes from the Persian word ganjifeh , meaning playing card...
- Hanafuda
are playing cards of Japanese origin that are used to play a number of games. The name literally translates as "flower cards". The name also refers to games played with those cards.-History:...
- House of cards
A house of cards is a structure created by stacking playing cards on top of each other. House of cards is also an expression which dates back to 1645 meaning; a structure or argument built on a shaky foundation or one that will collapse if a necessary element is removed...
- List of playing card nicknames
- List of poker hand nicknames
- Shuffling
- Sleight of hand
Sleight of hand, also known as prestidigitation or legerdemain, is the set of techniques used by a magician to manipulate objects such as cards and coins secretly....
- Tarocchi
- Tarot
The tarot |trionfi]] and later as tarocchi, tarock, and others) is a pack of cards , used from the mid-15th century in various parts of Europe to play a group of card games such as Italian tarocchini and French tarot...
- Tien len
Tien len , also known as Vietnamese cards, Thirteen, American Killer, or Up the Ass, or Jamal Patel in India, is a Vietnamese shedding-type card game devised in Southern China and Vietnam...
, Vietnamese cards
- Zener cards are used for parapsychology
Playing card manufacturers
External links