Playing card

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A social game using playing cards. Oil painting by an unknown artist, c1850.






Early history[edit]


Playing cards were invented in Imperial China.[2][3][4] They were found in China as early as the 9th century during the Tang Dynasty (618–907).[5][6][7] The first reference to card games 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 Tang, playing the "leaf game" in 868 with members of the Wei clan, the family of the princess' husband.[4][8][9]:131 The Song Dynasty (960–1279) scholar Ouyang Xiu (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.[3][4] 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.[3]

During the Ming Dynasty (1368–1644), characters from novels such as the Water Margin were widely featured on the faces of playing cards.[9]:132

Ancient Chinese "money cards" have four suits: 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 10,000). These were represented by ideograms, with numerals of 2–9 in the first three suits 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,[2] as in trading card games. The designs on modern Mahjong tiles likely evolved from those earliest playing cards. However, it may be that the first pack of cards ever printed was a Chinese domino pack, in whose cards all 21 combinations of a pair of dice are depicted. In Kuei-t'ien-lu, a Chinese text redacted in the 11th century, domino cards were printed during the Tang Dynasty, contemporary to the first printed books. The Chinese word pái (牌) is used to describe both paper cards and gaming tiles.

Mamluk Egyptian standard[edit]

A Mamluk playing card, Six of Coins

By the 11th century, playing cards were spread throughout the Asian continent and later came into Mamluk Egypt.[9]:309 The Mamluk pack contained 52 cards comprising four suits: polo sticks, coins, swords, and cups. Each suit contained ten spot or pip cards (cards identified by the number of suit symbols or "pips" they show) and three court cards, called malik (king), nā'ib malik (viceroy or deputy king), and thānī nā'ib (second or under-deputy). The Mamluk court cards showed abstract designs or calligraphy not depicting persons (at least not in any surviving specimens), though they did bear the names of military officers. Nā'ib would be corrupted into naibi (Italian) and naipes (Spanish), the latter still in common usage.

A complete pack of Mamluk playing cards was discovered by Leo Mayer in the Topkapı Palace, Istanbul, in 1939.[10] This particular complete pack was not made before 1400, but the complete pack was matched to a privately owned fragment dated to the 12th or 13th century. It is not a complete pack, but there are cards of three packs of the same style.[11] Production of these cards did not outlive the fall of the Mamluks in the sixteenth century.[12]

It is not known whether these cards influenced the design of the Indian cards used for the game of Ganjifa, 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 pack in the Deutsches Spielkartenmuseum, painted in the Mewar, a city in Rajasthan, during the 18th or 19th century. Packs used for play have from eight to twenty suits.

Spread across Europe and early design changes[edit]

Further information: Tarot
Italians playing cards, Sancai-type bowl, Northern Italy, mid-15th century

Playing cards first entered Southern Europe in the early 14th century, probably from Mamluk Egypt, using the Mamluk suits of cups, coins, swords, and polo-sticks, and which are still used in traditional Latin decks.[13] As polo was an obscure sport to Europeans then, the polo-sticks became staves, batons, or clubs.[14] The first documentary evidence is a document written in Vitoria-Gasteiz (now Spain) in 1334, in which the Knights of the Band are categorically prohibited from playing cards.[15] Their presence is attested in Catalonia in 1371, 1377 in Switzerland, and 1380 in many locations including Florence and Paris.[16][17][18] Wide use of playing cards in Europe can, with some certainty, be traced from 1377 onwards.[19]



Three French playing cards, c.1500, the queen should be Anne, Duchess of Brittany, holding her crowned coat of arms, representing the union of France and Brittany.[21] It is surrounded by a French motto (modern spelling): "Coeur de Femme trompe le monde", "women's heart deceive the world" in English.

No examples of printed cards from before 1423 survive. But from about 1418 to 1450[22] professional card makers in Ulm, Nuremberg, and Augsburg created printed decks. Playing cards even competed with devotional images as the most common uses for woodcut in this period.



Karnöffel is the oldest card game with which the rules are recorded. It has an early system of trumps that may have preceded the use of the tarot trumps. The origins of the tarot pack are thought to be Italian, with the oldest surviving examples dating from the mid-15th century in Milan. It is generally thought that the tarot was invented between 1411 and 1425 by adding a dedicated suit of trump cards (trionfi) to the Italian deck. The tarot deck was never as popular as the standard decks as it was more expensive so lower classes preferred smaller decks. In many countries or regions, the regular 52 or 56 card deck shrank to 48, 40, 36, 32, or 24 cards.

As cards spread from Italy to Germanic countries, 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 French suits of trèfles (clovers), carreaux (tiles), cœurs (hearts), and piques (pikes) around 1480. The trèfle (clover) was probably derived from the acorn and the pique (pike) from the leaf of the German suits. The names "pique" and "spade", however, may have derived from the sword of the Italian suits.[23] In England, the French suits were eventually used, although the earliest packs circulating may have had the Italian suits.[24] This may account to why the English called the clovers "clubs" and the pikes "spades".

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.[25][26] In a German pack from the 1440s, Queens replace Kings in two of the suits as the highest card. Although Germans abandoned the Queen before the 1500s, the French permanently picked it up and placed it under the King. Packs 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 Rouen 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.



Later design changes[edit]

A transformation playing card from the 1895 Vanity Fair deck

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 Ace, 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 Revolution, where games began being played "ace high" as a symbol of lower classes rising in power above the royalty.[citation needed] The term "Ace" itself comes from a dicing term in Anglo-Norman language, 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 (i.e. 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[citation needed]). The first such pack known with Latin suits was printed by Infirerra and dated 1693,[28] but this feature was commonly used only from the end of the 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.[clarification needed] 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 pack 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 Renaissance 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 Jack in English language packs. 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 packs) 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 Agen 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 (tarocchini) and in Spain the innovation was adopted during the second half of the 18th century. In Great Britain the pack 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.[29] 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.

Rounded corners were introduced as worn out corners could reveal the card's value. The previously blank backs of cards began sporting designs, pictures, or photos. This helped to hide wear and tear as well as to discourage writing on the back.[30]

Playing cards have been used as vehicles for political statements. Here, a playing card of the French Revolution symbolising freedom of religion and brotherhood.

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.[citation needed]

During the nineteenth century, the evolution of Tarot packs for cartomancy and for gaming diverged after Etteilla created the first tarot deck dedicated to divination in 1791. The "reading tarots" based on the symbolic designs of the Tarot de Marseille (which were extensively modified to produce the widely known Rider-Waite deck[citation needed]) 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 pack, 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 Nouveau is an example of the current style of playing tarot, though the artwork and design of this pack can be traced back to the 1890s. The Italian and Spanish Tarocchi packs, however, have largely kept the traditional character identifications of each trump, as well as the Latin suits, though these packs are used almost exclusively for gaming. Tarocco Bolognese and Tarocco Piemontese are examples of Italian-suited playing tarot packs while the Tarocco Siciliano is the only one that uses Spanish suits.

The United States introduced the joker into the deck. The stylings of the joker and its function are almost identical to the Fool from the original French Tarot deck, which had been removed in the transformation to the standard 52-card French pack. It was devised for the game of Euchre, which spread from Europe to America beginning shortly after the American Revolutionary War. 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.[31][32] Jokers also function as wild cards in many card games.

Modern deck formats[edit]

See also: Suit (cards)



Italian Cups
Seme coppe carte trevisane.svg
Seme denari carte trevisane.svg
Seme bastoni carte trevisane.svg
Seme spade carte trevisane.svg
Spanish Cups
Seme coppe carte spagnole.svg
Seme denari carte spagnole.svg
Seme bastoni carte spagnole.svg
Seme spade carte spagnole.svg
Swiss German Roses
Bouclier jeu de carte.svg
German Hearts
Bay herz.svg
Bay schellen.svg
Bay eichel.svg
Bay gras.svg
French Hearts

French suits[edit]

Main article: French playing cards
52 French playing cards with jokers




Latin suits[edit]

Latin decks consist of four suits: Swords, Clubs, Cups, and Coins. Spanish style clubs are knobbly cudgels while Italian style clubs are smooth batons. Italian style swords are curved while Spanish style swords are straight. The Portuguese pattern used Spanish suits but intersected their clubs and swords like in Italian suits. The only deck that uses the Portuguese pattern in the present is the Sicilian Tarot.


Italian suits[edit]

Main article: Italian playing cards
Italian deck from Bergamo


Spanish suits[edit]

Main article: Spanish playing cards


German suits[edit]

Main article: German playing cards
A 32-card German suited set using the Saxon pattern


Swiss German suits[edit]

Main article: Swiss playing cards



Accessible playing cards[edit]

A deck with many features to help the visually impaired




Production techniques[edit]

The typical production process for a new pack starts with the choice between the most suitable material: card stock or plastic. Playing cards made from plastic (Polyvinyl Chloride) will last longer as compared to paper playing cards.





Symbols in Unicode[edit]

Main article: Unicode Playing Card

The Unicode standard for text encoding on computers defines 8 characters for card suits in the Miscellaneous Symbols block, at U+2660–2667. Unicode 7.0 added a unified pack for Tarot's trump cards (Major Arcana) and the 52 cards of the modern French pack, with 4 Knights, together with a character for "Playing Card Back" and black, red, and white jokers in the block U+1F0A0–1F0FF.[34]

See also[edit]


  1. ^ "National Museum of Australia: Playing cards featuring logo of the FJ Holden". 
  3. ^ a b c Needham 2004, p. 132
  4. ^ a b c Lo (2000), p. 390.
  5. ^ Needham 2004, pp. 131–132
  11. ^ International Playing Cards Society Journal, 30-3, page 139
  12. ^ The Mamluk Cards
  14. ^ Moorish deck
  15. ^ "History of the Mus". Ontario Basque Club. Retrieved 26 September 2013. 
  16. ^ autorbis. "Trionfi - Tarot and its history". 
  17. ^ autorbis. "Trionfi - Tarot and its history". 
  22. ^ autorbis. "Early Card painters and Printers in Germany, Austria and Flandern (14th and 15th century)". 
  23. ^ "Early Playing Cards Research". Retrieved 22 September 2014. 
  24. ^ "The Introduction of Playing-Cards to Europe". 
  27. ^ Early Japanese decks
  28. ^ (International Playing Cards Society Journal 30-1 page 34)
  29. ^ International Playing Cards Society Journal XXVII-5 p. 186 and International Playing Cards Society Journal 31-1 p. 22
  30. ^ History of playing cards
  31. ^ US Playing Card Co. - A Brief History of Playing Cards ( mirror)
  32. ^ Beal, George. Playing cards and their story. 1975. New York: Arco Publishing Comoany Inc. p. 58
  33. ^ "Latin decks". 
  34. ^ Unicode – Playing Cards Block, retrieved 2014-11-08 


External links[edit]