10 Amazing Facts About Playing Cards

A deck of cards is one of those things that everyone comes into contact with from time to time. What else can be so small and simple and yet at the same time, so versatile? From serious and complicated games such as bridge to casino classics like poker and blackjack, to magic tricks to wow the kids – a deck of cards can do it all.

Here, we take a look at ten interesting facts about your humble deck of cards. How many of them did you know?

1) A long history

Cards first arrived on the scene around 900 years ago in China, yet today, they remain as popular as ever. Perhaps part of the reason is that despite their simplicity, cards and card games evolve with the times. In the 21st century, people still play with traditional cards, but the arrival of the internet has had a significant impact in keeping cards relevant. Online casino sites such as Casino Shark are enormously popular, and have brought traditional card games like pontoon to a whole new generation in an exciting way. The technological age has also reinvented solitaire, and even led to the invention of new games such as freecell.

2) The four suits

Has it ever occurred to you that hearts, diamonds, spades and clubs is something of a random selection for the four suits? As is so often the case, there is logic and meaning behind them, but you have to dig through the sands of time to find it. The original suits back in medieval times were coins, which signified wealth, cups (love), swords and sticks. Over time, these evolved into the suits we see today.

3) Card royalty

Each of the Kings, Queens and Jacks looks quite distinctive, and this is because they are based on real historical figures. The designs originated in France, where playing cards were enormously popular among the aristocracy during pre-revolutionary times. They have all evolved over the years, and the four Kings as we know them today first appeared in the 18th century. They are based on Charlemange (hearts), Caesar (diamonds), King David (spades) and Alexander the Great (clubs).

4) How about the Queens?

There is a common misconception that Queen Elizabeth I is represented as the Queen of Hearts. When you take a look, it is easy to see why people might think this, as there is a striking similarity. However, this is not actually the case. Elizabeth was born in 1533, and the Queens, as they appear in the modern age, go back far further than the Kings, and predate Elizabeth’s birth by some years. The Queen of Hearts is actually based on Judith, a biblical figure, and the other Queens have similarly ancient inspiration.

5) Jacks and knaves

People love an argument over terminology, and one of the most popular where cards are concerned is over jacks and knaves. The discussion has been going on for years, and lovers of classic literature will remember Estella’s exclamation when playing cards with poor young Pip: “He calls the knaves jacks, this boy!” Knave is actually the older term, loosely meaning a servant, but the term Jack, meaning “everyman,” came into common parlance in the 19th century. It became a more standardized term when it became common to include the letter for Kings, Queens and Jacks in the corner of the playing card. With K already in use for Kings, Knaves were abbreviated to Kn, which was clearly less than ideal. No wonder J for Jack became the standard.

6) The ace of spades

We all know that the ace of spades is designed differently to the rest of the cards. Once again, there is a historical reason for this. As mentioned above, cards were very popular in France, and the ruling classes saw a way of making some money out of this. In the 17th century, they levied a tax on just one of the 52 cards, and its design was modified to accommodate the stamp to show that duty had been paid. The idea was imported to the UK in 1711 and remained in force till 1960. Some tried to evade tax by simply playing without the ace of spades – this is where the phrase “not playing with a full deck” is thought to come from.

7) The patterns on the back

These days, you can get cards with everything from Mickey Mouse to Lady Gaga on the back, but traditional cards have those distinctive patterns in either red or blue. These have meaning, too, however – each manufacturer has its own pattern, which is as distinctive as the tartan of a Scottish clan.

8) Card warfare

Did playing cards really fulfill a significant role in the Vietnam war? There are plenty of stories out there that suggest that they did. According to historians, the Vietnamese were very superstitious about the ace of spades, and believed that it signified death. When they heard about this, the US Playing Card Company in Cincinnati started producing special decks of cards containing 52 aces of spades and nothing else. They sent the packs out to American troops, who left them on the bodies of fallen soldiers and scattered around the fields and jungle to instill fear in the enemy troops.

9) More card warfare

This was not the first time the Cincinnati card maker had helped in the war effort. In a story that sounds straight from Q’s lab in a James Bond movie, they sent specially made playing cards to American prisoners of war held in German camps during the Second World War. When they got wet, the covers could be peeled away, and the cards put together to reveal an escape map.

10) Card manufacture today

The US Playing Card Company is still going strong, although it is now headquartered in Erlanger, Kentucky, and this year, celebrated 150 years of business. It remains the biggest manufacturer of playing cards in the entire world, and sells more than 100 million decks of cards every year.

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