An ace is a

playing card A playing card is a piece of specially prepared card stock, heavy paper, thin cardboard, plastic-coated paper, cotton-paper blend, or thin plastic that is marked with distinguishing motifs. Often the front (face) and back of each card has a f ...

, die or

domino Dominoes is a family of tile-based games played with gaming pieces. Each domino is a rectangular tile, usually with a line dividing its face into two square ''ends''. Each end is marked with a number of spots (also called '' pips'' or ''dots'' ...

with a single pip. In the standard

French deck French-suited playing cards or French-suited cards are playing cards, cards that use the French Playing card suit, suits of (clovers or clubs ), (tiles or diamonds ), (hearts ), and (pikes or spades ). Each suit contains th ...

, an ace has a single

suit A suit, also called a lounge suit, business suit, dress suit, or formal suit, is a set of clothes comprising a suit jacket and trousers of identical textiles generally worn with a collared dress shirt, necktie, and dress shoes. A skirt su ...

symbol (a heart, diamond, spade, or a club) located in the middle of the card, sometimes large and decorated, especially in the case of the ace of spades. This embellishment on the ace of spades started when King James VI of Scotland and I of England required an insignia of the printing house to be printed on the ace of spades. This insignia was necessary for identifying the printing house and stamping it as having paid the new

stamp tax Stamp duty is a duty (tax), tax that is levied on single property purchases or documents (including, historically, the majority of legal documents such as cheques, receipts, military commissions, marriage licences and land transactions). Histo ...

. Although this requirement was abolished in 1960, the tradition has been kept by many card makers. In other countries the stamp and embellishments are usually found on ace cards; clubs in France, diamonds in Russia, and hearts in Genoa because they have the most blank space.

Etymology

The word "ace" (, ) comes from the

Old French Old French (, , ; ) was the language spoken in most of the northern half of France approximately between the late 8th

Roman coin Roman currency for most of Roman history consisted of gold, silver, bronze Bronze is an alloy consisting primarily of copper, commonly with about 12–12.5% tin and often with the addition of other metals (including aluminium, manganese, ...

. It originally meant the side of a die with only one pip, before it was a term for a playing card. Since this was the lowest roll of the die, it traditionally meant 'bad luck' in Middle English">dice">die with only one pip, before it was a term for a playing card. Since this was the lowest roll of the die, it traditionally meant 'bad luck' in Middle English, but as the ace is often the highest playing card, its meaning has since changed to mean 'high-quality, excellence'.

Ace promotion

Historically, the ace had a low value and this still holds in many popular European games (in fact many European decks, including the French- and Latin-suited decks, do not use the "A" index, instead keeping the numeral "1"). The modern convention of "ace high", in which the ace is the highest card of the house, seemed to have happened in stages. Card games, before they arrived in Europe, had suits that were in reverse ranking. In the Chinese game of Mǎ diào, which lacked court cards, the Coins (suit), suit of coins was inverted so the 1 of Coins was the highest in its suit. In the Ganjifa games of Persia, India, and Arabia, only the pip cards of half the suits were reversed so the 1 ranked just below the lowest court card. This convention carried over to early European games like

Ombre Ombre (, pronounced "omber") or l'Hombre is a fast-moving seventeenth-century trick-taking card game for three players and "the most successful card game ever invented." Its history began in Spain around the end of the 16th century as a four-p ...

, Maw, and Trionfi (

Tarot Tarot (, first known as ''trionfi (cards), trionfi'' and later as ''tarocchi'' or ''tarocks'') is a set of playing cards used in tarot games and in fortune-telling or divination. From at least the mid-15th century, the tarot was used to play t ...

). During the 15th and 16th centuries, the ranking of all suits were becoming progressive. A few games from this period like

Triomphe Triomphe (French for triumph), once known as French ruff, is a card game dating from the late 15th century. It most likely originated in France or Spain (as triunfo) and later spread to the rest of Europe. When the game arrived in Italy, it shared ...

, has the ace between the ten and the jack. The earliest known game in which the ace is the highest card of its suit is

Trappola Trappola is an early 16th-century Republic of Venice, Venetian trick-taking card game which spread to most parts of Central Europe and survived, in various forms and under various names like Trapulka, Bulka and Hundertspiel until perhaps the midd ...

. In ace–ten games like

brusquembille Brusquembille or BriscambilleTrömer, Jean Chretien (1755). ''Jean Chretien Toucement des Deutsch Franços Schrifften''. Vol. 2. expanded. Nuremberg: Raspe. pp. 285 – 286. is a historical, French, 3-card trick-and-draw game for two to five playe ...

, pinochle and sixty-six, the ace dragged the 10 along with it to the top so the ranking became A-10-K. Some games promoted the deuces and treys too like Put,

Truc Truc, pronounced in France and in Spain, is a 15th-century bluff and counter-bluff trick-taking card game which has been likened to poker for two. It is played in Occitania, Sarthe (where it is known as ''trut''), Poitou (''tru'') and the Basqu ...

, and Tressette. "King high" games were still being made in the 17th century, for example

cribbage Cribbage, or crib, is a card game, traditionally for two players, that involves playing and grouping cards in combinations which gain points. It can be adapted for three or four players. Cribbage has several distinctive features: the cribbage ...

. Many games, such as

poker Poker is a family of Card game#Comparing games, comparing card games in which Card player, players betting (poker), wager over which poker hand, hand is best according to that specific game's rules. It is played worldwide, with varying rules i ...

and

blackjack Blackjack (formerly black jack or ''vingt-un'') is a casino banking game. It is the most widely played casino banking game in the world. It uses decks of 52 cards and descends from a global family of casino banking games known as " twenty-one ...

, allow the player to choose whether the ace is used as a high or low card. This duality allows players in some other games to use it as both at once; some variants of

Rummy Rummy is a group of games related by the feature of matching playing cards, cards of the same rank or sequence and same suit. The basic goal in any form of rummy is to build ''Meld (cards), melds'' which can be either Set (cards), sets (three ...

allow players to form melds, of rank K-A-2 or similar. This is known as "going around the corner". It was not only the French deck which experienced this promotion, but some games involving the

Swiss Swiss most commonly refers to: * the adjectival form of Switzerland * Swiss people Swiss may also refer to: Places * Swiss, Missouri * Swiss, North Carolina * Swiss, West Virginia * Swiss, Wisconsin Other uses * Swiss Café, an old café located ...

and German deck also evolved into using the ''Daus'' (deuce) as the highest card. The ace had disappeared during the 15th century, so the deuce took its place. The ''Ass'' (ace) and ''Daus'' (deuce) were conflated into a single card and the names are used interchangeably along with ''Sau'' (sow) as early cards of that rank depicted a pig. Some decks in southern Germany use "A" for the index because "D" is reserved for ''Dame'' (

Queen Queen most commonly refers to: * Queen regnant, a female monarch of a kingdom * Queen consort, the wife of a reigning king * Queen (band), a British rock band Queen or QUEEN may also refer to: Monarchy * Queen dowager, the widow of a king * Q ...

) in French-suited decks. Confusion is also avoided as German-suited decks lack numbered cards below "7" or "6". Despite using French-suited cards, Russians call the Ace a Deuce (''tuz''), a vestige of a period when German cards were predominant in central and eastern Europe.

In Unicode

The aces are included in the

Playing Cards A playing card is a piece of specially prepared card stock, heavy paper, thin cardboard, plastic-coated paper, cotton-paper blend, or thin plastic that is marked with distinguishing motifs. Often the front (face) and back of each card has a Pap ...

: * * * *

References

{{Playing cards Ace