Playing cards

Playing cards are small pieces of paper or plastic used to play games or perform magic, cardistry, and fortune-telling. Most playing cards are divided into suits (represented by symbols or objects) and have a numerical value assigned to each card.

History

Playing cards originated in China by the late 1200s, where they were much narrower than the most common playing cards today. They featured three or four money-themed suits: Coins, Strings of Coins, Myriads, and sometimes Tens of Myriads.

The concept of playing cards likely spread to Persia and Arabia, then to Egypt, where new suits were established: Swords, Coins, Polo-Sticks, and Cups. These decks also seem to be the earliest ancestor of the modern deck structure: ten pip cards + three court cards.

From Egypt, playing cards are thought to have traveled to Europe, where they continued to evolve, both in their design and in the total amount of cards. Most European designs appear to evolve from one to the next.

Region	Suits
Italy	Sword	Coin	Club	Cup
Germany	Leaf	Bell	Acorn	Heart
Switzerland	Shield	Bell	Acorn	Rose
France	Spade / Pike	Diamond / Tile	Club / Clover	Heart

During the 1500s, Portuguese traders brought playing cards to Japan, leading to the creation of karuta, including hanafuda.

Cards

Modern decks of European origin have three kinds of cards: pip cards, court cards, and Jokers.

Pips

Since the beginning of playing cards, the value of a card has been represented with an amount of pips equal to its value.

Courts

Portraits were used on cards as early as Chinese money cards, though using portraits as an indicator of a high-value card may have originated in Persia or Arabia. Since then, court cards differ regionally, in content, style, and name.

Italian: Fante ▶ Knave, Cavallo ▶ Knight, Re ▶ King
German: Unter ▶ low-rank, Ober ▶ high-rank, König ▶ King
French: Valet ▶ Knave, Dame ▶ Lady, Roi ▶ King
English: Jack, Queen, King

Jokers

In the late 1860s, decks of playing cards started to include a Joker card, intended to be the highest trump card in the game Euchre. Seventy years later, a second Joker card was added. Some decks contain up to six Jokers. A common character on Joker cards is a clown or court jester, though this varies wildly from deck to deck.