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A playing card is a piece of specially prepared
card stock Card stock, also called cover stock and pasteboard, is paper that is thicker and more durable than normal writing and printing paper, but thinner and more flexible than other forms of paperboard. Card stock is often used for business cards, ...
, heavy paper, thin cardboard,
plastic-coated paper Coated paper (also known as enamel paper, gloss paper, and thin paper) is paper that has been coated with a mixture of materials or a polymer to impart certain qualities to the paper, including weight, surface gloss, smoothness, or reduced ink ab ...
, cotton-paper blend, or thin plastic that is marked with distinguishing motifs. Often the front (face) and back of each card has a finish to make handling easier. They are most commonly used for playing
card game A card game is any game that uses playing cards as the primary device with which the game is played, whether the cards are of a traditional design or specifically created for the game (proprietary). Countless card games exist, including famil ...
s, and are also used in magic tricks, cardistry,
card throwing Card throwing is the art of throwing standard playing cards with great accuracy or force. It is performed both as part of stage magic shows and as a competitive physical feat among magicians, with official records existing for longest distance ...
, and card houses; cards may also be collected. Playing cards are typically palm-sized for convenient handling, and usually are sold together in a set as a deck of cards or pack of cards. The most common type of playing card in the West is the
French-suited French-suited playing cards or French-suited cards are cards that use the French suits of (clovers or clubs ), (tiles or diamonds ), (hearts ), and (pikes or spades ). Each suit contains three or four face/court cards. I ...
, standard 52-card pack, of which the most widespread design is the English pattern, followed by the Belgian-Genoese pattern. However, many countries use other, traditional types of playing card, including those that are
German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...
,
Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance languag ...
,
Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...
and Swiss-suited.
Tarot card Tarot (, first known as '' 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 trick-taking ca ...
s (also known locally as ''Tarocks'' or ''tarocchi'') are an old genre of playing card that is still very popular in France, central and Eastern Europe and Italy. Customised Tarot card decks are also used for
divination Divination () is the attempt to gain insight into a question or situation by way of an occultic ritual or practice. Using various methods throughout history, diviners ascertain their interpretations of how a should proceed by reading signs, ...
; including
tarot card reading Tarot card reading is a form of cartomancy whereby practitioners use tarot cards to purportedly gain insight into the past, present or future. The process typically begins with formulation of a question, followed by drawing and interpreting cards ...
and
cartomancy Cartomancy is fortune-telling or divination using a deck of cards. Forms of cartomancy appeared soon after playing cards were introduced into Europe in the 14th century.Paul Huson, Huson, Paul (2004). ''Mystical Origins of the Tarot: From Anci ...
. Asia, too, has regional cards such as the Japanese
hanafuda () are a type of Japanese playing cards. They are typically smaller than Western playing cards, only , but thicker and stiffer. On the face of each card is a depiction of plants, , animals, birds, or man-made objects. One single card depicts a ...
, Chinese money-suited cards, or Indian
ganjifa Ganjifa, Ganjapa or Gânjaphâ, is a card game and type of playing cards that are most associated with Persia and India. After Ganjifa cards fell out of use in Iran before the twentieth century, India became the last country to produce them.At the ...
. The reverse side of the card is often covered with a pattern that will make it difficult for players to look through the translucent material to read other people's cards or to identify cards by minor scratches or marks on their backs. Playing cards are available in a wide variety of styles, as decks may be custom-produced for competitions,
casino A casino is a facility for gambling. Casinos are often built near or combined with hotels, resorts, restaurants, retail shops, cruise ships, and other tourist attractions. Some casinos also host live entertainment, such as stand-up comedy, conce ...
s and magicians (sometimes in the form of
trick deck A trick deck is a deck of playing cards that has been altered in some way to allow magicians to perform certain card tricks where sleight of hand would be too difficult or impractical. Trick decks Brainwave deck The Brainwave deck is a lesser-k ...
s), made as promotional items, or intended as
souvenir A souvenir ( French for 'a remembrance or memory'), memento, keepsake, or token of remembrance is an object a person acquires for the memories the owner associates with it. A souvenir can be any object that can be collected or purchased and trans ...
s, artistic works,
education Education is the transmission of knowledge and skills and the development of character traits. Formal education occurs within a structured institutional framework, such as public schools, following a curriculum. Non-formal education als ...
al tools, or
brand A brand is a name, term, design, symbol or any other feature that distinguishes one seller's goods or service from those of other sellers. Brands are used in business, marketing, and advertising for recognition and, importantly, to create and ...
ed accessories. Decks of cards or even single cards are also collected as a hobby or for monetary value.


History


China

Playing cards were most likely invented during the
Tang dynasty The Tang dynasty (, ; zh, c=唐朝), or the Tang Empire, was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 618 to 907, with an Wu Zhou, interregnum between 690 and 705. It was preceded by the Sui dynasty and followed ...
around the 9th century, as a result of the usage of woodblock printing technology. The reference to a leaf game in a 9th-century text known as the ''Collection of Miscellanea at Duyang'' ( zh, s=杜阳杂编, p=Dùyáng zábiān), written by Tang dynasty writer Su E, is often cited in connection to the existence of playing cards. However the connection between playing cards and the leaf game is disputed. The reference describes Princess Tongchang, daughter of
Emperor Yizong of Tang Emperor Yizong of Tang (December 28, 833 – August 15, 873), né Li Wen, later changed to Li Cui (), was an emperor of the Tang dynasty of China. He reigned from 859 to 873. Emperor Yizong was the eldest son of Emperor Xuanzong. After Emperor ...
, playing the "leaf game" in 868 with members of the Wei clan, the family of the princess's husband. The first known book on the "leaf" game was called the ''Yezi Gexi'' and allegedly written by a Tang woman. It received commentary by writers of subsequent dynasties. The
Song dynasty The Song dynasty ( ) was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 960 to 1279. The dynasty was founded by Emperor Taizu of Song, who usurped the throne of the Later Zhou dynasty and went on to conquer the rest of the Fiv ...
(960–1279) scholar
Ouyang Xiu Ouyang Xiu (; 1007 – 1072 CE), courtesy name Yongshu, also known by his art names Zuiweng () and Liu Yi Jushi (), was a Chinese historian, calligrapher, epigrapher, essayist, poet, and politician of the Song dynasty. He was a renowned writer a ...
(1007–1072) asserts that the "leaf" game existed at least since the mid-Tang dynasty and associated its invention with the development of printed sheets as a writing medium. However, Ouyang also claims that the "leaves" were pages of a book used in a board game played with dice, and that the rules of the game were lost by 1067.
Parlett, David David Parlett (born 18 May 1939 in London) is a games scholar, historian, and translator from South London, who has studied both card games and board games. He is the president of the British Skat Association. Life David Sidney Parlett was bo ...
,
The Chinese "Leaf" Game
, March 2015.
Other games revolving around alcoholic drinking involved using playing cards of a sort from the Tang dynasty onward. However, these cards did not contain suits or numbers. Instead, they were printed with instructions or forfeits for whoever drew them. The earliest dated instance of a game involving cards occurred on 17 July 1294 when the Ming Department of Punishments caught two gamblers, Yan Sengzhu and Zheng Pig-Dog, playing with paper cards. Wood blocks for printing the cards were impounded, together with nine of the actual cards. William Henry Wilkinson suggests that the first cards may have been actual paper currency which doubled as both the tools of gaming and the stakes being played for, similar to
trading card A trading card (or collectible 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 (fictional or real) and a short description of the picture, along with other t ...
games. Using paper money was inconvenient and risky so they were substituted by play money known as "money cards". One of the earliest games in which we know the rules is ''
madiao ''Madiao'' (), also ''ma diao'', ''ma tiu'' or ''ma tiao'', is a late imperial Chinese trick-taking gambling card game, also known as the game of ''paper tiger''. The deck used was recorded by Lu Rong in the 15th century and the rules later by ...
'', a
trick-taking game A trick-taking game is a card- or tile-based game in which play of a ''hand'' centers on a series of finite rounds or units of play, called ''tricks'', which are each evaluated to determine a winner or ''taker'' of that trick. The object of suc ...
, which dates to the
Ming Dynasty The Ming dynasty, officially the Great Ming, was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 1368 to 1644, following the collapse of the Mongol Empire, Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming was the last imperial dynasty of ...
(1368–1644). Fifteenth-century scholar Lu Rong described it is as being played with 38 "money cards" divided into four
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 ...
s: 9 in
coin A coin is a small object, usually round and flat, used primarily as a medium of exchange or legal tender. They are standardized in weight, and produced in large quantities at a mint in order to facilitate trade. They are most often issued by ...
s, 9 in strings of coins (which may have been misinterpreted as sticks from crude drawings), 9 in
myriad In the context of numeric naming systems for powers of ten, myriad is the quantity ten thousand ( 10,000). Idiomatically, in English, ''myriad'' is an adjective used to mean that a group of things has indefinitely large quantity. ''Myriad ...
s (of coins or of strings), and 11 in tens of myriads (a myriad is 10,000). The two latter suits had ''
Water Margin ''Water Margin'' (), also called ''Outlaws of the Marsh'' or ''All Men Are Brothers'', is a Chinese novel from the Ming dynasty that is one of the preeminent Classic Chinese Novels. Attributed to Shi Nai'an, ''Water Margin'' was one of the e ...
'' characters instead of pips on them with Chinese to mark their rank and suit. The suit of coins is in reverse order with 9 of coins being the lowest going up to 1 of coins as the high card.


Persia

Despite the wide variety of different patterns, the suits show a uniformity of structure. Every suit contains twelve cards with the top two usually being the
court card A court is an institution, often a government entity, with the authority to adjudicate legal disputes between parties and administer justice in civil, criminal, and administrative matters in accordance with the rule of law. Courts gene ...
s of
king King is a royal title given to a male monarch. A king is an Absolute monarchy, absolute monarch if he holds unrestricted Government, governmental power or exercises full sovereignty over a nation. Conversely, he is a Constitutional monarchy, ...
and
vizier A vizier (; ; ) is a high-ranking political advisor or Minister (government), minister in the Near East. The Abbasids, Abbasid caliphs gave the title ''wazir'' to a minister formerly called ''katib'' (secretary), who was at first merely a help ...
and the bottom ten being pip cards. Some decks can contain 8 suits to make a 96-card deck, like the deck for
Ganjifa Ganjifa, Ganjapa or Gânjaphâ, is a card game and type of playing cards that are most associated with Persia and India. After Ganjifa cards fell out of use in Iran before the twentieth century, India became the last country to produce them.At the ...
. Half the suits use reverse ranking for their pip cards. There are many motifs for the suit pips but some include coins, clubs, jugs, and swords which resemble later
Mamluk Mamluk or Mamaluk (; (singular), , ''mamālīk'' (plural); translated as "one who is owned", meaning "slave") were non-Arab, ethnically diverse (mostly Turkic, Caucasian, Eastern and Southeastern European) enslaved mercenaries, slave-so ...
and Latin suits.
Michael Dummett Sir Michael Anthony Eardley Dummett (; 27 June 1925 – 27 December 2011) was an English academic described as "among the most significant British philosophers of the last century and a leading campaigner for racial tolerance and equality." H ...
speculated that Mamluk cards may have descended from an earlier deck which consisted of 48 cards divided into four suits each with ten pip cards and two court cards.


Egypt

By the 11th century, playing cards were spreading throughout the Asian continent and later came into Egypt. The oldest surviving cards in the world are four fragments found in the Keir Collection and one in the Benaki Museum. They are dated to the 12th and 13th centuries (late
Fatimid The Fatimid Caliphate (; ), also known as the Fatimid Empire, was a caliphate extant from the tenth to the twelfth centuries CE under the rule of the Fatimid dynasty, Fatimids, an Isma'ili Shi'a dynasty. Spanning a large area of North Africa ...
,
Ayyubid The Ayyubid dynasty (), also known as the Ayyubid Sultanate, was the founding dynasty of the medieval Sultan of Egypt, Sultanate of Egypt established by Saladin in 1171, following his abolition of the Fatimid Caliphate, Fatimid Caliphate of Egyp ...
, and early
Mamluk Mamluk or Mamaluk (; (singular), , ''mamālīk'' (plural); translated as "one who is owned", meaning "slave") were non-Arab, ethnically diverse (mostly Turkic, Caucasian, Eastern and Southeastern European) enslaved mercenaries, slave-so ...
periods). A near complete pack of Mamluk playing cards dating to the 15th century, and of similar appearance to the fragments above, was discovered by Leo Aryeh Mayer in the
Topkapı Palace The Topkapı Palace (; ), or the Seraglio, is a large museum and library in the east of the Fatih List of districts of Istanbul, district of Istanbul in Turkey. From the 1460s to the completion of Dolmabahçe Palace in 1856, it served as the ad ...
,
Istanbul Istanbul is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, constituting the country's economic, cultural, and historical heart. With Demographics of Istanbul, a population over , it is home to 18% of the Demographics ...
, in 1939. It is not a complete set and is actually composed of three different packs, probably to replace missing cards. The Topkapı pack originally contained 52 cards comprising four suits: polo-sticks, coins, swords, and cups. Each suit contained ten pip cards and three court cards, called ''malik'' (king), ''nā'ib malik'' (viceroy or deputy king), and ''thānī nā'ib'' (second or under-deputy). The ''thānī nā'ib'' is a non-existent title so it may not have been in the earliest versions; without this rank, the Mamluk suits would structurally be the same as a Ganjifa suit. In fact, the word "Kanjifah" appears in Arabic on the king of swords and is still used in parts of the Middle East to describe modern playing cards. Influence from further east can explain why the Mamluks, most of whom were Central Asian Turkic
Kipchaks The Kipchaks, also spelled Qipchaqs, known as Polovtsians (''Polovtsy'') in Russian annals, were Turkic nomads and then a confederation that existed in the Middle Ages inhabiting parts of the Eurasian Steppe. First mentioned in the eighth cent ...
, called their cups '' tuman'', which means "myriad" (10,000) in the Turkic, Mongolian, and Jurchen languages. Wilkinson postulated that the cups may have been derived from inverting the Chinese and Jurchen ideogram for "myriad", , which was pronounced as something like ''man'' in
Middle Chinese Middle Chinese (formerly known as Ancient Chinese) or the Qieyun system (QYS) is the historical variety of Chinese language, Chinese recorded in the ''Qieyun'', a rime dictionary first published in 601 and followed by several revised and expande ...
. The Mamluk court cards showed abstract designs or calligraphy not depicting persons possibly due to religious proscription in Sunni Islam, though they did bear the ranks on the cards. ''Nā'ib'' would be borrowed into French (''nahipi''), Italian (''naibi''), and Spanish (''naipes''), the latter word still in common usage. Panels on the pip cards in two suits show they had a reverse ranking, a feature found in
madiao ''Madiao'' (), also ''ma diao'', ''ma tiu'' or ''ma tiao'', is a late imperial Chinese trick-taking gambling card game, also known as the game of ''paper tiger''. The deck used was recorded by Lu Rong in the 15th century and the rules later by ...
,
ganjifa Ganjifa, Ganjapa or Gânjaphâ, is a card game and type of playing cards that are most associated with Persia and India. After Ganjifa cards fell out of use in Iran before the twentieth century, India became the last country to produce them.At the ...
, and old European card 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 ...
,
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 ...
, and maw. A fragment of two uncut sheets of
Moorish The term Moor is an exonym used in European languages to designate the Muslim populations of North Africa (the Maghreb) and the Iberian Peninsula (particularly al-Andalus) during the Middle Ages. Moors are not a single, distinct or self-defi ...
-styled cards of a similar was found in Spain and dated to the early 15th century. Export of these cards (from Cairo, Alexandria, and Damascus), ceased after the fall of the Mamluks in the 16th century. The rules to play these games are lost but they are believed to be plain trick games without
trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who is the 47th president of the United States. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he served as the 45 ...
s.


Spread across Europe and early design changes

Playing cards probably came to Europe from the East, specifically those used by the
Mamluks Mamluk or Mamaluk (; (singular), , ''mamālīk'' (plural); translated as "one who is owned", meaning "slave") were non-Arab, ethnically diverse (mostly Turkic, Caucasian, Eastern and Southeastern European) enslaved mercenaries, slave-sold ...
in Egypt, and probably arrived first in Spain since the earliest European mention of playing cards appears in 1371 in a
Catalan language Catalan () is a Western Romance languages, Western Romance language and is the official language of Andorra, and the official language of three autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous communities in eastern Spain: Catalonia, the Balearic I ...
rhyme dictionary which lists ''naip'' among words ending in ''-ip''. According to
Trevor Denning Trevor J. Denning (6 December 1923 – 23 October 2009) was an England, English artist, sculptor, writer, and art teacher who was influential in the Birmingham art community. Biography Denning was born in Moseley, Birmingham, studying paintin ...
, the only attested meaning of this Catalan word is "playing card". This suggests that cards may have been "reasonably well known" in
Catalonia Catalonia is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a ''nationalities and regions of Spain, nationality'' by its Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia of 2006, Statute of Autonomy. Most of its territory (except the Val d'Aran) is situate ...
(now part of Spain) at that time, perhaps introduced as a result of maritime trade with the Mamluk rulers of Egypt. The earliest record of playing cards in central Europe is believed by some researchers to be a ban on card games in the city of
Bern Bern (), or Berne (), ; ; ; . is the ''de facto'' Capital city, capital of Switzerland, referred to as the "federal city".; ; ; . According to the Swiss constitution, the Swiss Confederation intentionally has no "capital", but Bern has gov ...
in 1367,Peter F. Kopp: Die frühesten Spielkarten in der Schweiz. In: Zeitschrift für schweizerische Archäologie und Kunstgeschichte 30 (1973), pp. 130–145, here 130. but this source is disputed as the earliest copy available dates to 1398 and may have been amended.Hellmut Rosenfeld: Zu den frühesten Spielkarten in der Schweiz. Eine Entgegnung. In: Zeitschrift für schweizerische Archäologie und Kunstgeschichte 32 (1975), pp. 179–180. Generally accepted as the first Italian reference is a Florentine ban dating to 1377. Also appearing in 1377 was the treatise by John of Rheinfelden, in which he describes playing cards and their moral meaning. From this year onwards more and more records (usually bans) of playing cards occur, first appearing in England as early as 1413. Among the early patterns of playing card were those derived from the Mamluk suits of cups, coins, swords, and polo sticks, which are still used in traditional Latin decks. As
polo Polo is a stick and ball game that is played on horseback as a traditional field sport. It is one of the world's oldest known team sports, having been adopted in the Western world from the game of Chovgan (), which originated in ancient ...
was an obscure sport to Europeans then, the polo-sticks became batons or cudgels. In addition to Catalonia in 1371, the presence of playing cards is attested in 1377 in
Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...
, and 1380 in many locations including
Florence Florence ( ; ) is the capital city of the Italy, Italian region of Tuscany. It is also the most populated city in Tuscany, with 362,353 inhabitants, and 989,460 in Metropolitan City of Florence, its metropolitan province as of 2025. Florence ...
and
Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...
. Wide use of playing cards in Europe can, with some certainty, be traced from 1377 onward. In the account books of Johanna, Duchess of Brabant and
Wenceslaus I, Duke of Luxembourg Wenceslaus I (also ''Wenceslas'', ''Venceslas'', ''Wenzel'', or ''Václav'', often called Wenceslaus of Bohemia in chronicles) (25 February 1337 – 7 December 1383) was the first Duke of Luxembourg from 1354. He was the son of John of Bohemi ...
, an entry dated May 14, 1379, by receiver general of Brabant Renier Hollander reads: "Given to Monsieur and Madame four peters and two florins, worth eight and a half sheep, for the purchase of packs of cards". In his book of accounts for 1392 or 1393, Charles or Charbot Poupart, treasurer of the household of
Charles VI of France Charles VI (3 December 136821 October 1422), nicknamed the Beloved () and in the 19th century, the Mad ( or ''le Fou''), was King of France from 1380 until his death in 1422. He is known for his mental illness and psychosis, psychotic episodes t ...
, records payment for the painting of three sets of cards. From about 1418 to 1450 professional card makers in Ulm,
Nuremberg Nuremberg (, ; ; in the local East Franconian dialect: ''Nämberch'' ) is the Franconia#Towns and cities, largest city in Franconia, the List of cities in Bavaria by population, second-largest city in the States of Germany, German state of Bav ...
, and
Augsburg Augsburg ( , ; ; ) is a city in the Bavaria, Bavarian part of Swabia, Germany, around west of the Bavarian capital Munich. It is a College town, university town and the regional seat of the Swabia (administrative region), Swabia with a well ...
created printed decks. Playing cards even competed with devotional images as the most common uses for
woodcut Woodcut is a relief printing technique in printmaking. An artist carves an image into the surface of a block of wood—typically with gouges—leaving the printing parts level with the surface while removing the non-printing parts. Areas that ...
s in this period. Most early woodcuts of all types were coloured after printing, either by hand or, from about 1450 onwards,
stencil Stencilling produces an image or pattern on a surface by applying pigment to a surface through an intermediate object, with designed holes in the intermediate object. The holes allow the pigment to reach only some parts of the surface creatin ...
s. These 15th-century playing cards were probably painted. The Flemish Hunting Deck, held by the
Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art, colloquially referred to as the Met, is an Encyclopedic museum, encyclopedic art museum in New York City. By floor area, it is the List of largest museums, third-largest museum in the world and the List of larg ...
, is the oldest complete set of ordinary playing cards made in Europe from the 15th century. As cards spread from Italy to Germanic countries, the Latin suits were replaced with the suits of leaves (or shields), hearts (or roses), bells, and acorns. France initially used Latin-suited cards and the
Aluette Aluette or Vache ("Cow") is an old, plain trick-taking card game that is played on the west coast of France. It is played by two teams, usually of four people, but sometimes also of six. It is unusual in using a unique pack of 48 Spanish playing c ...
pack used today in western France may be a relic of that time, but around 1480, French card manufacturers, perhaps in order to facilitate mass production, went over to very much simplified versions of the German suit symbols. A combination of Latin and Germanic suit pictures and names resulted in the French suits of (clovers), (tiles), (hearts), and (pikes) around 1480. The ''trèfle'' (clover) was probably derived from the acorn and the (pike) from the leaf of the German suits. The names and ''spade'', however, may have derived from the sword () of the Italian suits. In England, the French suits were eventually used, although the earliest packs circulating may have had Latin suits. This may account for why the English called the clovers "clubs" and the pikes "spades". In the late 14th century, Europeans changed the Mamluk court cards to represent European royalty and attendants. In a description from 1377, the earliest courts were originally a seated "
king King is a royal title given to a male monarch. A king is an Absolute monarchy, absolute monarch if he holds unrestricted Government, governmental power or exercises full sovereignty over a nation. Conversely, he is a Constitutional monarchy, ...
", an upper
marshal Marshal is a term used in several official titles in various branches of society. As marshals became trusted members of the courts of Middle Ages, Medieval Europe, the title grew in reputation. During the last few centuries, it has been used fo ...
that held his suit symbol up, and a lower marshal that held it down. The latter two correspond with the ''Ober'' and ''Unter'' cards still found today in
German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...
and
Swiss playing cards Parts of Swiss German speaking Switzerland have their own deck of playing cards referred to as Swiss-suited playing cards or Swiss-suited cards. They are mostly used for Jass, the "national card game" of Switzerland. The deck is related to the va ...
. The Italians and Iberians replaced the / system with the "
Knight A knight is a person granted an honorary title of a knighthood by a head of state (including the pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the church, or the country, especially in a military capacity. The concept of a knighthood ...
" and "" or "" before 1390, perhaps to make the cards more visually distinguishable. In England, the lowest court card was called the " knave" which originally meant ''male child'' (compare German ), so in this context the character could represent the "
prince A prince is a male ruler (ranked below a king, grand prince, and grand duke) or a male member of a monarch's or former monarch's family. ''Prince'' is also a title of nobility (often highest), often hereditary, in some European states. The ...
", son to the king and queen; the meaning ''servant'' developed later.
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 ...
s appeared sporadically in packs as early as 1377, especially in Germany. Although the Germans abandoned the queen before the 1500s, the French permanently picked it up and placed it under the king. In 1628, the Mystery of Makers of Playing Cards of the City of London (now the Worshipful Company of Makers of Playing Cards) was incorporated under a
royal charter A royal charter is a formal grant issued by a monarch under royal prerogative as letters patent. Historically, they have been used to promulgate public laws, the most famous example being the English Magna Carta (great charter) of 1215, but ...
by Charles I; the Company received livery status from the
Court of Aldermen The Court of Aldermen forms part of the senior governance of the City of London Corporation. It comprises twenty-five Aldermen of the City of London, presided over by the Lord Mayor (becoming senior Alderman during his or her year of office). ...
of the
City of London The City of London, also known as ''the City'', is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county and Districts of England, local government district with City status in the United Kingdom, city status in England. It is the Old town, his ...
in 1792. The Company still exists today, having expanded its member ranks to include "card makers... card collectors, dealers, bridge players, ndmagicians". During the mid 16th century, Portuguese traders introduced playing cards to Japan. The first indigenous Japanese deck was the named after the period.


Later design changes

Packs with corner and edge indices (i.e. the value of the card printed at the corner(s) or edges of the card) enabled players to hold their cards close together in a fan with one hand (instead of the two hands previously used). An early example of a pack with edge indices and Latin suits was printed by Infirerra and dated 1693. However, this feature was commonly used only from the end of the 18th century. The first American-manufactured (French) deck with this innovation was the Saladee's Patent, printed by Samuel Hart in 1864. In 1870, he and his cousins at Lawrence & Cohen followed up with the Squeezers, the first cards with indices that had a large diffusion. This was followed by the innovation of reversible court cards. This invention is attributed to a French card maker of
Agen Agen (, , ) is the prefecture of the Lot-et-Garonne department in Nouvelle-Aquitaine, Southwestern France. It lies on the river Garonne, southeast of Bordeaux. In 2021, the commune had a population of 32,485. Geography The city of Agen l ...
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 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 ...
cards) and Italy ( Tarocco Bolognese) 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 Edward Ludlow and Ann Wilcox. Not being registered card-makers, they worked with printer Thomas Wheeler to produce a French-suited pack using this patent, which was first sold in 1801. Sharp corners wear out more quickly, and could possibly reveal the card's value, so they were replaced with rounded corners. Before the mid-19th century, British, American, and French players preferred blank backs. The need to hide wear and tear and to discourage writing on the back led cards to have designs, pictures, photos, or advertising on the reverse. The
United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
introduced the joker into the deck. It was devised for the game of
euchre Euchre or eucre ( ) is a trick-taking game, trick-taking card game played in Canada, Great Britain, New Zealand, Upstate New York, and the Midwestern United States. It is played with a deck of 24, 25, 28, or 32 standard playing cards. There are no ...
, which spread from Europe to America beginning shortly after the
American Revolutionary War The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was the armed conflict that comprised the final eight years of the broader American Revolution, in which Am ...
. In euchre, the highest trump card is the Jack of the trump suit, called the ''right bower'' (from the German '' 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. 1860 as a third trump, the ''imperial'' or ''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.US Playing Card Co. – A Brief History of Playing Cards
(archive.org mirror)
Beal, George (1975). ''Playing cards and their story.'' New York: Arco Publishing Company Inc. p. 58 The earliest reference to a joker functioning as a wild card dates to 1875 with a variation of poker. Playing cards were also some of the earliest products to be sold in packaging. Early card packs were sold in paper sleeves held closed with a string. The 19th century saw the apparition of progressively more complex cardboard packaging, with tuck-flap boxes becoming common by the end of the century.
Cellophane Cellophane is a thin, transparent sheet made of regenerated cellulose. Its low permeability to air, oils, greases, bacteria, and liquid water makes it useful for food packaging. Cellophane is highly permeable to water vapour, but may be coate ...
wrappers were common by 1937.


Modern-era manufacturers and artists

The Japanese video game company
Nintendo is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational video game company headquartered in Kyoto. It develops, publishes, and releases both video games and video game consoles. The history of Nintendo began when craftsman Fusajiro Yamauchi ...
was founded in 1889 to produce and distribute , most notably . ''Hanafuda'' cards had become popular after Japan banned most forms of gambling in 1882 but largely left ''hanafuda'' untouched. Sales of ''hanafuda'' cards were popular with the
yakuza , also known as , are members of transnational organized crime syndicates originating in Japan. The Japanese police and media (by request of the police) call them , while the yakuza call themselves . The English equivalent for the term ''yak ...
-run gaming parlors in Kyoto. Other card manufacturers had opted to leave the market not wanting to be associated with criminal ties, but Nintendo founder Fusajiro Yamauchi continued, becoming the largest producer of ''hanafuda'' within a few years. With the increase of the cards' popularity, Yamauchi hired assistants to mass-produce to satisfy the demand. Even with a favorable start, the business faced financial struggle due to operating in a
niche market A niche market is the subset of the market on which a product is appealed to a small group of consumers. The market niche defines the product features aimed at satisfying specific market needs, as well as the price range, production quality and the ...
, the slow and expensive manufacturing process, high product price, alongside long durability of the cards, which impacted sales due to the low replacement rate. As a solution, Nintendo produced a cheaper and lower-quality line of playing cards, , while also conducting product offerings in other cities such as
Osaka is a Cities designated by government ordinance of Japan, designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the List of cities in Japan, third-most populous city in J ...
, where card game profits were high. In addition, local merchants were interested in the prospect of a continuous renewal of decks, thus avoiding the suspicions that reusing cards would generate.


Research

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...
's Rare Book and Manuscript Library holds the Albert Field Collection of Playing Cards, an archive of over 6,000 individual decks from over 50 countries and dating back to the 1550s. In 2018 the university digitized over 100 of its decks. Since 2017,
Vanderbilt University Vanderbilt University (informally Vandy or VU) is a private university, private research university in Nashville, Tennessee, United States. Founded in 1873, it was named in honor of shipping and railroad magnate Cornelius Vanderbilt, who provide ...
has been home to the 1,000-volume George Clulow and United States Playing Card Co. Gaming Collection, which has been called one of the "most complete and scholarly collections f books on cards and gamingthat has ever been gathered together".


Journals

Journals and magazines dedicated to the subject of playing cards include: * ''Das Blatt'' – German publication primarily on playing card designs and history * ''
The Playing-Card ''The Playing-Card'' is a quarterly publication, publishing scholarly articles covering all aspects of playing cards and of the games played with them, produced by the International Playing-Card Society (IPCS). ''The Playing-Card''s articles are ...
'' – international publication incorporating research articles on playing cards and card games * ''Clear the Decks'' – American publication of 52 Plus Joker


Modern formats

Contemporary playing cards are grouped into three broad categories based on the suits they use: French, Latin, and Germanic. Latin suits are used in the closely related Spanish and Italian formats. The Swiss-German suits are distinct enough to merit their subcategory. Excluding jokers and tarot trumps, the French 52-card deck preserves the number of cards in the original Mamluk deck, while Latin and Germanic decks average fewer. Latin decks usually drop the higher-valued pip cards, while Germanic decks drop the lower-valued ones. Within suits, there are regional or national variations called "standard patterns." Because these patterns are in the
public domain The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work to which no Exclusive exclusive intellectual property rights apply. Those rights may have expired, been forfeited, expressly Waiver, waived, or may be inapplicable. Because no one holds ...
, this allows multiple card manufacturers to recreate them. Pattern differences are most easily found in the face cards but the number of cards per deck, the use of numeric indices, or even minor shape and arrangement differences of the pips can be used to distinguish them. Some patterns have been around for hundreds of years. Jokers are not part of any pattern as they are a relatively recent invention and lack any standardized appearance so each publisher usually puts its own trademarked illustration into their decks. The wide variation of jokers has turned them into collectible items. Any card that bore the
stamp duty Stamp duty is a 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). Historically, a ...
like the ace of spades in England, the ace of clubs in France or the ace of coins in Italy are also collectible as that is where the manufacturer's logo is usually placed. Typically, playing cards have indices printed in the upper-left and lower-right corners. While this design does not restrict which hand players hold their cards, some
left-handed In human biology, handedness is an individual's preferential use of one hand, known as the dominant hand, due to and causing it to be stronger, faster or more dextrous. The other hand, comparatively often the weaker, less dextrous or simply l ...
players may prefer to fan their cards in the opposite direction. Some designs exist with indices in all four corners.


French-suited decks

French decks come in a variety of patterns and deck sizes. The 52-card deck is the most popular deck and includes 13 ranks of each suit with reversible "court" or face cards. Each suit includes an ace, 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 pips of its suit. As well as these 52 cards, commercial packs often include between one and six jokers, most often two. Decks with fewer than 52 cards are known as
stripped deck A stripped deck or short deck (US), short pack or shortened pack (UK), is a set of playing cards reduced in size from a full pack or deck by the removal of a certain card or cards. The removed cards are usually pip cards, but can also be court car ...
s. The
piquet pack A Piquet pack or, less commonly, a Piquet deck, is a pack of 32 French suited cards that is used for a wide range of card games. The name derives from the game of Piquet which was commonly played in Britain and Europe until the 20th century and is ...
has all values from 2 through 6 in each suit removed for a total of 32 cards. It is popular in France, the
Low Countries The Low Countries (; ), historically also known as the Netherlands (), is a coastal lowland region in Northwestern Europe forming the lower Drainage basin, basin of the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta and consisting today of the three modern "Bene ...
, Central Europe and is used to play piquet,
belote Belote () is a 32-card, trick-taking, ace–ten game played primarily in France and certain European countries, namely Armenia, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Georgia (country), Georgia (mainly Guria), Greece, Luxembourg, Moldova, North Mac ...
, bezique and skat. Values in Russian 36-card stripped deck (used to play durak and many other traditional games) range from 6 to 10. It is also used in the Sri Lankan,
whist Whist is a classic English trick-taking card game which was widely played in the 18th and 19th centuries. Although the rules are simple, there is scope for strategic play. History In 1674, '' The Complete Gamester'' described the game Ru ...
-based game known as ''omi''. Forty-card French suited packs are common in northwest Italy; these remove the 8s through 10s like Latin-suited decks. 24-card decks, removing 2s through 8s are also sold in Austria and Bavaria to play
Schnapsen Schnapsen, Schnapser or Schnapsa is a trick-taking card game of the bézique (ace–ten) family that is very popular in Bavaria and in the territories of the former Austro-Hungarian Empire and has become the national card game of Austria and Hung ...
. A pinochle deck consists of two copies of a 24-card
schnapsen Schnapsen, Schnapser or Schnapsa is a trick-taking card game of the bézique (ace–ten) family that is very popular in Bavaria and in the territories of the former Austro-Hungarian Empire and has become the national card game of Austria and Hung ...
deck, thus 48 cards. The 78-card Tarot Nouveau adds the knight card between queens and jacks along with 21 numbered trumps and the unnumbered Fool.


Manufacturing

Today the process of making playing cards is highly automated. Large sheets of
paper Paper is a thin sheet material produced by mechanically or chemically processing cellulose fibres derived from wood, Textile, rags, poaceae, grasses, Feces#Other uses, herbivore dung, or other vegetable sources in water. Once the water is dra ...
are glued together to create a sheet of
pasteboard Card stock, also called cover stock and pasteboard, is paper that is thicker and more durable than normal writing and printing paper, but thinner and more flexible than other forms of paperboard. Card stock is often used for business cards, po ...
; the glue may be black or dyed another dark color to increase the card stock's opacity. In the industry, this black compound is sometimes known as "gick". Some card manufacturers may purchase pasteboard from various suppliers; large companies such as USPCC create their own proprietary pasteboard. After the desired imagery is etched into
printing plate Printing is a process for mass reproducing text and images using a master form or template. The earliest non-paper products involving printing include cylinder seals and objects such as the Cyrus Cylinder and the Cylinders of Nabonidus. The ...
s, the art is printed onto each side of the pasteboard sheet, which is coated with a textured or smooth finish, sometimes called a varnish or paint coating. These coatings can be water- or solvent-based, and different textures and visual effects can be achieved by adding certain dyes or foils, or using multiple varnish processes. The pasteboard is then split into individual uncut sheets, which are cut into single cards and sorted into decks. The corners are then rounded, after which the decks are packaged, commonly in tuck boxes wrapped in
cellophane Cellophane is a thin, transparent sheet made of regenerated cellulose. Its low permeability to air, oils, greases, bacteria, and liquid water makes it useful for food packaging. Cellophane is highly permeable to water vapour, but may be coate ...
. The tuck box may have a
seal Seal may refer to any of the following: Common uses * Pinniped, a diverse group of semi-aquatic marine mammals, many of which are commonly called seals, particularly: ** Earless seal, also called "true seal" ** Fur seal ** Eared seal * Seal ( ...
applied. Card manufacturers must pay special attention to the registration of the cards, as non-
symmetrical Symmetry () in everyday life refers to a sense of harmonious and beautiful proportion and balance. In mathematics, the term has a more precise definition and is usually used to refer to an object that is invariant under some transformations ...
cards can be used to cheat.


Non-standard design and use


Airlines

Airlines have produced playing cards to give to passengers since the 1920s, with the practice reaching a zenith in the 1960s and 1970s. However, the practice has become less common in recent decades.
Delta Air Lines Delta Air Lines, Inc. is a Major airlines of the United States, major airline in the United States headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia, operating nine hubs, with Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport being its ...
has created several series of decks, with several featuring art by Daniel C. Sweeney, John Hardy, and Jack Laycox.


Casinos

Gambling corporations commonly have playing cards made specifically for their casinos. As casinos consume many decks daily, they sometimes resell used cards that were "on the
asino Asino () is a town and the administrative centre of Asinovsky District in Tomsk Oblast, Russia. Population: It was previously known as ''Kseniyevsky'' (until 1930). History It was founded in 1896 as the transmigratory settlement of Kseniyevs ...
floor". The cards sold to the public are altered, either by cutting the deck's corners or by punching a hole in the deck, to prevent them from being used for cheating in the casino. Casinos may also sell decks separately as a souvenir item one notable example is Jerry's Nugget playing cards, released in 1970.


Cold case cards

Police departments, local governments, state prison systems, and even private organizations across the United States and other countries have created decks of cards that feature photos, names, and details of
cold case ''Cold Case'' is an American police procedural crime drama television series. It ran on CBS from September 28, 2003, to May 2, 2010. The series revolved around a fictionalized Philadelphia Police Department division that specializes in invest ...
victims or missing persons on each card. These decks are sold in prison commissaries, or even to the public, in the hopes that an inmate (or anyone else) might provide a new lead. Cold case card programs have been introduced in over a dozen states, including by
Oklahoma Oklahoma ( ; Choctaw language, Choctaw: , ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Texas to the south and west, Kansas to the north, Missouri to the northea ...
's State Bureau of Investigation,
Connecticut Connecticut ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York (state), New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. ...
's Division of Criminal Justice (five editions), the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (in 2008), Delaware's Department of Correction, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, and
Rhode Island Rhode Island ( ) is a state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Connecticut to its west; Massachusetts to its north and east; and the Atlantic Ocean to its south via Rhode Island Sound and Block Is ...
's
Department of Corrections In criminal justice, particularly in North America, correction, corrections, and correctional, are umbrella terms describing a variety of functions typically carried out by government agencies, and involving the punishment, treatment, and su ...
, among others. The Indiana Department of Correction sells cold case cards in prisons, and in 2024, Mississippi Coast Crime Stoppers created cold case playing cards, distributing 2,500 decks. Among inmates, they may be called "snitch cards". Prisoners with information may be motivated to come forward in order to receive a lightened sentence.


Collecting

Because of the long history and wide variety in designs, playing cards are also collector's items. In 1911, the ''New York Times'' described May King Van Rensselaer's playing card collection of over 900 decks as the largest in the world. According to ''
Guinness World Records ''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a British reference book published annually, list ...
'', the largest playing card collection comprises 11,087 decks and is owned by Liu Fuchang of China. Individual playing cards are also collected, such as the world record collection of 8,520 different jokers belonging to Tony de Santis of Italy.


Custom designs and artwork

Custom decks may be produced for myriad purposes. Across the world, both individuals and large companies such as
United States Playing Card Company The United States Playing Card Company (USPC, though also commonly known as USPCC) is a large American producer and distributor of playing cards. It was established in 1867 as Russell, Morgan & Co. and founded in Cincinnati, Ohio in its current ...
(USPCC) design and release many different styles of decks, including commemorative decks, cards created for fundraising, and souvenir decks. Bold and colorful designs tend to be used for cardistry decks, while more generally, playing cards (as well as tarot cards) may focus on artistic value. Custom deck production is commonly funded on platforms such as
Kickstarter Kickstarter, PBC is an American Benefit corporation, public benefit corporation based in Brooklyn, New York City, that maintains a global crowdfunding platform focused on creativity. The company's stated mission is to "help bring creative project ...
, with companies offering card printing services to the public. In 1976, the
JPL Gallery The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is a federally funded research and development center (FFRDC) in La Cañada Flintridge, California, Crescenta Valley, United States. Founded in 1936 by California Institute of Technology (Caltech) researche ...
in
London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
commissioned a card deck from a variety of contemporary British artists including Maggie Hambling,
Patrick Heron Patrick Heron (30 January 1920 – 20 March 1999) was a British abstract and figurative artist, critic, writer, and polemicist, who lived in Zennor, Cornwall. Heron was recognised as one of the leading painters of his generation. Influenced ...
,
David Hockney David Hockney (born 9 July 1937) is an English Painting, painter, Drawing, draughtsman, Printmaking, printmaker, Scenic design, stage designer, and photographer. As an important contributor to the pop art movement of the 1960s, he is considere ...
,
Howard Hodgkin Sir Gordon Howard Eliot Hodgkin (6 August 1932 – 9 March 2017) was a British painter and printmaker. His work is most often associated with abstraction. Early life Gordon Howard Eliot Hodgkin was born on 6 August 1932 in Hammersmith, Londo ...
, John Hoyland, and Allen Jones called "The Deck of Cards". Forty years later in 2016, the
British Council The British Council is a British organisation specialising in international cultural and educational opportunities. It works in over 100 countries: promoting a wider knowledge of the United Kingdom and the English language (and the Welsh lang ...
commissioned a similar deck called "Taash ke Patte" featuring
India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...
n artists such as Bhuri Bai,
Shilpa Gupta Shilpa Gupta (born 1976) is a contemporary Indian artist based in Mumbai, India. Gupta's artistic practise encompasses a wide range of mediums, including manipulated found objects, video art, interactive computer-based installations, and perf ...
, Krishen Khanna, Ram Rahman, Gulam Mohammed Sheikh, Arpita Singh, and Thukral & Tagra. American artist Tom Sachs has printed several custom decks featuring photos of his artwork. Playing cards themselves may also be used to make art, such as being used as a canvas for an artist trading card.


Military identification

Playing cards are a useful tool to pass information to troops during downtime. In World War II, the
United States Playing Card Company The United States Playing Card Company (USPC, though also commonly known as USPCC) is a large American producer and distributor of playing cards. It was established in 1867 as Russell, Morgan & Co. and founded in Cincinnati, Ohio in its current ...
produced a deck of cards featuring silhouettes of American, British, German, Italian, and Japanese aircraft. The Allies also produced maps concealed in playing cards. During the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the US military produced Most-wanted Iraqi playing cards to help soldiers identify enemy leaders. According to a
Defense Intelligence Agency The Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) is an intelligence agency and combat support agency of the United States Department of Defense (DoD) specializing in military intelligence. A component of the Department of Defense and the United States In ...
spokesperson, the practice actually dates back to the
American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...
. A design depicting
Igor Girkin Igor Vsevolodovich Girkin ( rus, И́горь Все́володович Ги́ркин, p=ˈiɡərʲ ˈfsʲevələdəvʲɪdʑ ˈɡʲirkʲɪn; born 17 December 1970), also known by the alias Igor Ivanovich Strelkov ( rus, И́горь Ива́ ...
and presumably other Russian leaders appeared during the 2022
Russian invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, , starting the largest and deadliest war in Europe since World War II, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, conflict between the two countries which began in 2014. The fighting has caused hundreds of thou ...
, and a similar deck of cards depicting Hamas was produced after the October 7, 2023 Hamas attacks on Israel. Card decks have also been used as an educational tool to help military personnel and civilians identify
unexploded ordnance Unexploded ordnance (UXO, sometimes abbreviated as UO) and unexploded bombs (UXBs) are explosive weapons (bombs, shell (projectile), shells, grenades, land mines, naval mines, cluster munition, and other Ammunition, munitions) that did not e ...
.


Symbols in Unicode

The
Unicode Unicode or ''The Unicode Standard'' or TUS is a character encoding standard maintained by the Unicode Consortium designed to support the use of text in all of the world's writing systems that can be digitized. Version 16.0 defines 154,998 Char ...
standard for character encoding defines 8 characters (symbols) for card suits in the
Miscellaneous Symbols Miscellaneous Symbols is a Unicode block (U+2600–U+26FF) containing glyphs representing concepts from a variety of categories: astrological, astronomical, chess, dice, musical notation, political symbols, recycling, religious symbols, trig ...
block, at . The Unicode names for each group of four glyphs are 'black' and 'white' but might have been more accurately described as 'solid' and 'outline' since the colour actually used at display or printing time is an application choice. Later, Unicode 7.0 added the 52 cards of the modern French pack, plus 4 knights, and a character for "Playing Card Back" and black, red and white jokers, 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 ...
block ().


See also

;Types of decks: :
Standard 52-card deck The standard 52-card deck of French-suited playing cards is the most common pack of playing cards used today. The main feature of most playing card decks that empower their use in diverse games and other activities is their double-sided design, w ...
:
Stripped deck A stripped deck or short deck (US), short pack or shortened pack (UK), is a set of playing cards reduced in size from a full pack or deck by the removal of a certain card or cards. The removed cards are usually pip cards, but can also be court car ...
:
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 ...
: Transformation playing card :
Trick deck A trick deck is a deck of playing cards that has been altered in some way to allow magicians to perform certain card tricks where sleight of hand would be too difficult or impractical. Trick decks Brainwave deck The Brainwave deck is a lesser-k ...
;Uses: :
Card game A card game is any game that uses playing cards as the primary device with which the game is played, whether the cards are of a traditional design or specifically created for the game (proprietary). Countless card games exist, including famil ...
:
Cartomancy Cartomancy is fortune-telling or divination using a deck of cards. Forms of cartomancy appeared soon after playing cards were introduced into Europe in the 14th century.Paul Huson, Huson, Paul (2004). ''Mystical Origins of the Tarot: From Anci ...
:
Card manipulation Card manipulation, commonly known as card magic, is the branch of magic that deals with creating effects using sleight of hand techniques involving playing cards. Card manipulation is often used in magical performances, especially in close-up, ...
:
Card money Card money is a type of fiat money printed on plain cardboard or playing cards, which was used at times as currency in several colonies and countries (including Dutch Suriname, Dutch Guiana, New France, and France) from the 17th century to the ...
:
Card throwing Card throwing is the art of throwing standard playing cards with great accuracy or force. It is performed both as part of stage magic shows and as a competitive physical feat among magicians, with official records existing for longest distance ...
:
House of cards A house of cards (also known as a card tower or card castle) is a structure created by stacking playing cards on top of each other, often in the shape of a pyramid. "House of cards" is also an expression that dates back to 1645 meaning a struc ...
:
Sleight of hand Sleight of hand (also known as prestidigitation or ''legerdemain'' () comprises fine motor skills used by performing artists in different art forms to entertain or manipulate. It is closely associated with close-up magic, card magic, card fl ...
;Geographic origin: :
Chinese playing cards Playing cards () were most likely invented in China during the Southern Song dynasty (1127–1279). They were certainly in existence by the Mongol Yuan dynasty (1271-1368).Lo, Andrew. (2000)The Game of Leaves: An Inquiry into the Origin of Chinese ...
:
French playing cards 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 ...
:
Ganjifa Ganjifa, Ganjapa or Gânjaphâ, is a card game and type of playing cards that are most associated with Persia and India. After Ganjifa cards fell out of use in Iran before the twentieth century, India became the last country to produce them.At the ...
: German playing cards :
Hanafuda () are a type of Japanese playing cards. They are typically smaller than Western playing cards, only , but thicker and stiffer. On the face of each card is a depiction of plants, , animals, birds, or man-made objects. One single card depicts a ...
:
Italian playing cards Playing cards (in Italian: ''carte da gioco'') have been in Italy since the late 14th century. Until the mid 19th century, Italy was composed of many smaller independent states which led to the development of various regional patterns of playing ...
:
Karuta are Culture of Japan, Japanese playing cards. Playing cards were introduced to Japan by Portuguese traders during the mid-16th century. These early decks were used for trick-taking games. The earliest indigenous ''karuta'' was invented in the ...
: Spanish playing cards :
Swiss playing cards Parts of Swiss German speaking Switzerland have their own deck of playing cards referred to as Swiss-suited playing cards or Swiss-suited cards. They are mostly used for Jass, the "national card game" of Switzerland. The deck is related to the va ...
:
Tujeon Tujeon (, literally ''fighting tablets'') are the traditional playing cards of Korea used in the latter half of the Joseon dynasty. They are also known as tupae (, literally ''fighting cards''). Composition A deck typically contains forty, sixty ...
;Terminology: :
Glossary of card game terms The following is a glossary of terms used in card games. Besides the terms listed here, there are thousands of common and uncommon slang terms. Terms in this glossary should not be game-specific (e.g. specific to Bridge (card game), bridge, Hearts ...
: List of playing card nicknames ;Specific decks: : Archaeology awareness playing cards : Most-wanted Iraqi playing cards : Politicards :
Trading card A trading card (or collectible 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 (fictional or real) and a short description of the picture, along with other t ...
: Zener cards (parapsychology) ;Sources for further information: : Cary Collection of Playing Cards :
International Playing-Card Society The International Playing-Card Society (IPCS) is a non-profit organisation for those interested in playing cards, their design, and their history. While many of its members are collectors of playing cards, they also include historians of playing c ...
:
Musée Français de la Carte à Jouer The Musée Français de la Carte à Jouer () is a museum of playing cards in Paris, France. It is located at 16, rue Auguste Gervais, in the suburb of Issy-les-Moulineaux. Nearby is Mairie d'Issy station, the southern terminus of Paris Métro Li ...
: Museum of Fournier de Naipes :
Playing card manufacturers Play is a range of intrinsically motivated activities done for recreation. Play is commonly associated with children and juvenile-level activities, but may be engaged in at any life stage, and among other higher-functioning animals as well, mos ...
: Playing card organisations


Footnotes


Further reading

*Maltese playing cards. * Griffiths, Antony. ''Prints and Printmaking'' British Museum Press (in UK),2nd edn, 1996 * Hind, Arthur M. ''An Introduction to a History of Woodcut''. Houghton Mifflin Co. 1935 (in USA), reprinted Dover Publications, 1963 * Roman du Roy Meliadus de Leonnoys (British Library, Add MS 12228, fol. 313v), c. 1352 *


References


Citations


Cited sources

* * * * * Ferg, Alan, Virginia Wayland and Harold Wayland (2007). "Recognizing a Nineteenth-Century Apache Playing Card Artist: The Tonte Naipero" in ''The Playing-Card'', Vol. 36, No. 2, Oct-Dec 2007. 100–120. * * * * *


External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Playing Card Chinese inventions History of card decks Paper products Tang dynasty Tarot Collecting pt:Baralho