From casino games to children’s entertainment, cards are used in a variety of games all over the world. Along with games such as online bingo, they are commonly seen in their digital form on sites such as JackpotJoy, where players can choose from various fun and engaging games.
Cartomancy is the process of predicting the future using playing cards, with experts reading meaning into the suits and numbers, offering insights based on the choices made. However, the real meaning behind the design of the standard fifty-two-card deck is almost more fascinating than the idea that those same cards can predict the future.
Considering how ubiquitous they are, most people rarely consider the origins of playing cards. Many are surprised to discover that the cards they are familiar with are known as ‘French Suited’ playing cards. There are a surprising number of alternatives to what those in the UK would consider the standard deck, including:
- Spanish decks contain between forty and forty-eight cards in suits of bastos (clubs), oros (gold coins), copas (cups), and espadas (swords).
- German decks comprising thirty-two and thirty-six cards in suits known as acorns, leaves, hearts, and bells, and their design had a massive influence on the French suit system common in Western Europe.
- Italian playing card designs date back to the late 14th century and feature four swords, cups, coins, and club suits.
- Swiss playing cards are mostly used for the national game of Jass, and most decks only have thirty-six cards. The four suits used in Swiss decks are bells, shields, roses, and acorns.
There are many similarities between the various card designs, but some variation in the number of cards in each suit and some designs are used specifically in regional card games.
French-suited playing cards
While the suits are commonly known in English as hearts, diamonds, clubs, and spades, they are called the coeurs, carreaux, trifles, and piques in French. The number cards are usually simply known by their numbers, apart from the ace, and can also be collectively referred to as ‘pip cards.’
There are plenty of different names for the non-numerical cards in the deck, usually known as the ‘face’ or ‘court’ cards. In French, they are the valet, dame, and ROI, but they tend to be called the knave or jack, queen, and king in English.
French-suited playing cards were unusual because they included women among the face cards, which had traditionally only featured men. The queen replaced the knight seen in many Latin and German decks,
One of the most innovative things to happen to play card design wasn’t introduced until the 19th century: the cards’ reversible nature, meaning they can be read just as easily from either side with no ‘upside down.’ Modern playing cards also have labels on all four corners to ensure they can be read when overlapping.
Card design in the UK
England had to import cards from elsewhere in Europe until card production began in London in the late 16th Century. Initially, these cards were based on existing patterns from cards from Rouen, but over time they were changed to reflect the creativity of the British designers.
During the 19th century, the British designs proved so popular that they proliferated quickly and rapidly became the design of choice in several places all over the world, including America; the suits used became ‘standard,’ and there was widespread acceptance of the designs, although they were still adapted and altered slightly to make them easier to play with.
The suits themselves were thought to represent the different classes of medieval society, reflecting the zeitgeist of the time with their designs that referenced the main classes of the day. Hearts, cups, and chalices were all thought to represent the clergy, while swords and spades stood for the military, diamonds or gold coins referred to the merchants, and the peasants were the batons or clubs.
However, there are many other explanations for the origins of the suits, with some believing that bells would be more likely to represent royalty and that diamonds were a symbol of either the upper classes or the clergy, depending on the prevailing symbolism.
This uncertainty did nothing to diminish the sale of cards, to the extent that James I decreed that the ace of spades card should bear a symbol to prove that proper tax had been paid and show which printer had been responsible for producing them. This tradition continues today, although the requirement to be wrapped in a specific wrapper bearing details of the government duty paid has fallen by the wayside.
Even countries with distinct designs of cards also tend to have a booming market for the French-suited deck, and they are commonly used in casinos all over the world for some of the most popular games around.
