Playing card

A playing card is a typically hand-sized rectangular (in India, round) piece of heavy paper or thin plastic used for playing card games. A complete set of cards is a pack or deck. Playing cards are often used as props in magic tricks, as well as occult practices such as cartomancy, and a number of card games involve (or can be used to support) gambling. As a result, their use sometimes meets with disapproval from some religious groups (such as conservative Christians). They are also a popular collectible (as distinct from the cards made specifically for collectible trading card games). Specialty and novelty decks are commonly produced for collectors, often with political, cultural, or educational themes.

Playing cards today

:See also Suit (cards)

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Anglo-American

The primary deck of fifty-two playing cards in use today, called Anglo-American playing cards, includes thirteen ranks of each of the four English suits, spades (♠), hearts (♥), diamonds (♦) and clubs (♣), with reversible Rouennais court cards. Each suit includes an ace, depicting a single symbol of its suit; a king, queen, and jack, each depicted with a symbol of its suit; and ranks two through ten, with each card depicting that many symbols (pips) of its suit. Two (sometimes one or four) Jokers, often distinguishable with one being more colorful than the other, are included in commercial decks but many games require one or both to be removed before play. Modern playing cards carry index labels on opposite corners (rarely, all four corners) to facilitate identifying the cards when they overlap.

Related Topics:
Spades - Hearts - Diamonds - Clubs - Ace

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The fanciful design and manufacturer's logo commonly displayed on the Ace of Spades began under the reign of James I of England, 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 Kingdom were liable for taxable duty and the Ace of Spades carried an indication of the name of the printer and the fact that taxation had been paid on the cards. The packs were also sealed with a government duty wrapper.

Related Topics:
Ace of Spades - James I of England - Tax - August 4 - 1960 - United Kingdom - Duty

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Though specific design elements of the court cards are rarely used in game play, a few are notable. The jack of spades and jack of hearts are drawn in profile, while the rest of the courts are shown in full face (the exception being the King of Diamonds), leading to the former being called the "one-eyed" jacks. When deciding which cards are to be made wild in some games, the phrase, "acey, deucey, one-eyed jack," is sometimes used, which means that aces, twos, and the one-eyed jacks are all wild. The king of hearts is shown with a broadsword behind his head, leading to the nickname "suicide king". The King of Diamonds is armed with an ax while the other three kings are armed with swords. The king of Diamonds is sometimes referred to as "the man with the ax" because of this. The Ace of Spades, unique in its large, ornate spade, is sometimes said to be the death card, and in some games is used as a trump card.

Related Topics:
Ace - Broadsword - Suicide king

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There are theories about who the court cards represent. For example, the Queen of Hearts is believed by some to be a representation of Elizabeth of York - the Queen consort of King Henry VII of England. However the Kings, Queens and Jacks of standard Anglo/American cards do not represent anyone. They stem from designs produced in Rouen 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 the 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.

Related Topics:
Elizabeth of York - Queen consort - King Henry VII of England - Rouen

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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.

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The most common sizes for playing cards are poker size (2½in × 3½in, approx. 63mm × 88mm) and bridge size (2¼in × 3½in, approx. 56mm × 87mm), the latter being more suitable for games such as bridge 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. 44mm × 66mm) for solitaire and larger ones for card tricks.

Related Topics:
Bridge - Solitaire

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Some decks include additional design elements. Casino blackjack 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. Many decks have large indices, largely for use in stud poker games, where being able to read cards from a distance is a benefit and hand sizes are small. Some decks use four colors for the suits in order to make it easier to tell them apart. The colors used in such decks are black (spades ♠), red (hearts ♥), blue (diamonds ♦) and green (clubs ♣).

Related Topics:
Casino - Blackjack - Stud poker

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When giving the full written name of a specific card, the rank is given first followed by

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the suit, e.g., "Ace of Spades". Shorthand notation may list the rank first "A♠" (as is typical when discussing 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.

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German and Austrian

German and Austrian suits may have different appearances. For instance, many German decks have yellow or orange diamonds and green spades. Many southern Germans and Austrians prefer decks with hearts, bells, leaves, and acorns (for hearts, diamonds, spades, and clubs), as mentioned above.

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example Old German playing cards as produced by Altenburger Spielkartenfabrik

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Italian

Italian playing cards most commonly consist of a deck of 40 cards. Hundreds of different designs are in use in different parts of the country (about one per province). The suits are coins (sometimes suns or sunbursts), swords, cups and clubs (sometimes batons), and each suit contains an ace (or one), numbers two through seven, and three face cards. The face cards are:

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• King - a man standing, wearing a crown
• Knight - a man sitting on a horse
• Jack - a younger man standing, without a crown

Unlike Anglo-American cards, 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.

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Example: "Triestine" playing cards manufactured by Modiano

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Spanish

The traditional Spanish deck (referred to as baraja española)is organized into four palos (or suits). Like traditional tarot cards these consist of bastos (clubs), oros ("golds" or coins), espadas (swords) and copas (cups). Unlike in the standard Anglo-American deck, there is no card 10, so each suit has only twelve cards. The three face cards in each suit are as follows: el rey (the king), el caballo (the horse or horseman) and la sota (the jack, knave, or page.) Many Spanish games involve forty-card decks, with the 8s and 9s removed. This deck is used not only in Spain but in other countries where Spain maintained an influence, (eg. Philippines, Puerto Rico)1.

Related Topics:
Baraja española - Philippines - Puerto Rico

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Japanese

The standard 54-card deck is also commonly known as a poker deck or—in Japan—a Trump deck, to differentiate it from "dedicated" card games such as UNO or Froop!, or other dynamic card decks like Hanafuda.

Related Topics:
Poker deck - Trump - UNO - Froop! - Hanafuda

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