
Shields, also called Escutcheons, are one of the four
suits of
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 ...
s within the
Swiss deck
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 var ...
along with
Acorns
Acorns may refer to:
* Plural of acorn, the nut of the oak tree
* Acorns (company), a micro-investing and robo-advisor financial company
* Acorns (suit), one of the four suits in German pattern playing cards
* Acorns Children's Hospice
Acorns ...
,
Bells and
Roses
A rose is either a woody perennial flowering plant of the genus ''Rosa'' (), in the family Rosaceae (), or the flower it bears. There are over three hundred species and tens of thousands of cultivars. They form a group of plants that can be ...
. This suit was invented in 15th century German speaking lands and is a survivor from a large pool of experimental suit signs created to replace the
Latin suits. One example from the mid-15th century is a five-suited deck with the Latin suits plus a suit of shields.
Characteristics
As its name suggests, the shield symbol is a stylized depiction of a warrior's
shield
A shield is a piece of personal armour held in the hand, which may or may not be strapped to the wrist or forearm. Shields are used to intercept specific attacks, whether from close-ranged weaponry or projectiles such as arrows, by means of ...
in yellow. The coat of arms varies from deck to deck.
In the
German language
German ( ) is a West Germanic language mainly spoken in Central Europe. It is the most widely spoken and official or co-official language in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, and the Italian province of South Tyrol. It is als ...
, the shield is called ''Schilten''.
Cards
The following images depict the suit of Shields from an 1850 Swiss-suited pack:
See also
*
Card suit
In playing cards, a suit is one of the categories into which the cards of a deck are divided. Most often, each card bears one of several pips (symbols) showing to which suit it belongs; the suit may alternatively or additionally be indicated by ...
References
{{Playing card
Card suits