"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). Chinese use the word ""pái"" (), meaning ""plaque"", to refer to both playing cards and tiles. Many early sources are ambiguous if they don't specifically refer to paper ""pái"" (cards) or bone ""pái"" (tiles). In terms of game play, there is no difference; both serve to hide one face from the other players with identical backs. Card games are examples of imperfect information games as opposed to Chess or Go. Many"
"Playing card A playing card is a piece of specially prepared heavy paper, thin cardboard, plastic-coated paper, cotton-paper blend, or thin plastic, marked with distinguishing motifs and used as one of a set for playing card games. Playing cards are typically palm-sized for convenient handling, and were first invented in China during the Tang dynasty. Playing cards may have been invented during the Tang dynasty around the 9th century AD as a result of the usage of woodblock printing technology. The first possible reference to card games comes from a 9th-century text known as the ""Collection of Miscellanea at Duyang"","
"shuffled together to form a single ""pack"" or ""shoe"". The first playing cards appeared in the 9th century during Tang-dynasty China. The first reference to the card game in world history dates no later than the 9th century, when the ""Collection of Miscellanea at Duyang"", written by Tang Dynasty writer Su E, described Princess (daughter of Emperor Yizong of Tang) playing the ""leaf game"" with members of the Wei clan (the family of the princess' husband) in 868 . The Song dynasty statesman and historian Ouyang Xiu has noted that paper playing cards arose in connection to an earlier development"
"playing cards were invented in China. Chinese playing cards, as we understand the term today, date from at least 1294, when Yen Sengzhu and Zheng Pig-Dog were apparently caught gambling in Enzhou (in modern Shandong Province). Cards entered Europe from the Islamic empire. The earliest authentic references to playing cards in Europe date from 1377. Europe changed the Islamic symbols such as scimitars and cups into graphical representations of kings, queens, knights and jesters. Different European countries adopted different suit systems. For instance, some Italian, Spanish and German decks of cards even today do not have queens. During the 15th"
"knights, together with a character for ""Playing Card Back"" and black, red, and white jokers in the block U+1F0A0–1F0FF. Playing card societies (collectors and researchers) History of playing cards Playing card iconography Museums, Institutes and Organisations Playing card collections online Playing card A playing card is a piece of specially prepared heavy paper, thin cardboard, plastic-coated paper, cotton-paper blend, or thin plastic, marked with distinguishing motifs and used as one of a set for playing card games. Playing cards are typically palm-sized for convenient handling, and were first invented in China during the Tang dynasty. Playing cards may have been"
"1365, and are likely derived from the Mamluk suits of cups, coins, swords, and polo-sticks, which are still used in traditional Latin decks. As polo was an obscure sport to Europeans then, the polo-sticks became batons or cudgels. Their presence is attested in Catalonia in 1371, 1377 in Switzerland, and 1380 in many locations including Florence and Paris. 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, an entry dated May 14, 1379 reads: ""Given to Monsieur and"
"highest card of the suit led, but if a player cannot follow suit, they may play a trump and the highest trump wins. The winner is the player or team that wins the most tricks. Playing cards came to Europe from the Muslim world in the 14th century. At that time the suit signs were swords, batons, coins and cups, which are still used in some countries. India, China and Korea also have traditional packs of playing cards. The Indian ganjifa cards are usually round, and have 8, 10 12 cards each. Chinese playing cards are very small and narrower"
"or as gambling games, such as Poker. In Asian cultures, special sets of tiles can serve the same function as cards, as in mahjong, a game similar to (and thought to be the distant ancestor of) the Western card game rummy. Western dominoes games are believed to have developed from Asian tile games in the 18th century. """" was the first collectible card game (or ""trading card game"") in 1993. The line between card and board games is not clear-cut, as many card games, such as solitaire, involve playing cards to form a ""tableau"", a spatial layout or board. Many"
"known in Mongolia. The direction of deals and play is counter-clockwise. Playing cards may have been invented during the Tang dynasty around the 9th century AD as a result of the usage of woodblock printing technology. The first possible reference to card games comes from a 9th-century text known as the ""Collection of Miscellanea at Duyang"", written by Tang dynasty writer Su E. It describes Princess Tongchang, daughter of Emperor Yizong of Tang, playing the ""leaf game"" in 868 with members of the clan of Wei Baoheng, the family of the princess' husband. The first known book on the ""leaf"""
"Alcarria"" by Camilo José Cela). Playing cards, originally of Chinese origin, were adopted in Mamluk Egypt by the 14th century if not earlier, and from there spread to the Iberian peninsula in the latter half of the 14th century. The Spanish word ""naipes"" is loaned from ""nā'ib"", ranks of face cards found in the Mamluk deck. The earliest record of ""naip"" comes from a Catalan rhyming dictionary by Jaume March II in 1371, but without any context or definition. By 1380, ""naipero"" (card-maker) was a recognized profession. In December 1382, card games were banned from being played in Barcelona's corn"
"split into several independent states. Even after these states began sharing the same monarchy, they maintained their own separate parliaments, laws, and taxes for several centuries. In the 16th century, Spain became the first country to tax playing cards. The various regions and states kept track of the taxes they were owed by requiring producers, who were often monopolies (""estanco""), to conform to a regional pattern for cards sold locally. Known regional patterns include the Seville, Madrid, Toledo, Navarre, Valencia, and Catalonia patterns. There were also export patterns, possibly including the little known Toulouse/Girona pattern or the ""Dragon cards"" (see"
"Face card In a deck of playing cards, the term face card (US) or court card (British) is generally used to describe a card that depicts a person as opposed to the pip cards. They are also known as picture cards, or until the early 20th century, coat cards. While playing cards were invented in China, Chinese playing cards do not have a concept of face cards. When playing cards arrived in Iran, the Persians created the first face cards. In their Ganjifeh decks, each suit had ten pip cards that are outranked by a mounted vizier and a seated"
"The earliest description of playing cards in Europe comes from Johannes of Rheinfelden in 1377. He describes the recent introduction of cards in his region. For decks he regards as common, beneath the seated king were two marshals (cavalry commanders), with one holding his suit sign up while the other held his hanging down. This corresponds with modern obers and unters with the exception that they are no longer mounted on horseback. Card decks that contain four Obers are used, for example, in Skat, Mau Mau, Bavarian Tarock and Schafkopf. By contrast, the decks used to play Gaigel and Doppelkopf"
"German playing cards German playing cards are a style of playing cards used in many parts of Central Europe. Playing cards (""Spielkarten"") entered German-speaking lands around the late 1370s. The earliest cards were likely Latin-suited like in Italy and Spain. After much experimentation, the cards settled into new suits of Acorns (""Eichel""), Leaves (""Grün"", ""Blatt"", ""Laub"" or ""Gras""), Hearts (""Herz"") and Bells (""Schelle"" or ""Schell"") around 1450. Closely related Swiss playing cards are used in German-speaking Switzerland. The French suit symbols were derived from the German ones around 1480. German-suited cards spread throughout Central Europe into areas that were once"
"Russian playing cards Russian playing cards are cards that used predominantly in Russia and in the former Soviet Union. Unlike the internationally known standard French 52-card deck, most Russian card games employ either the 36 card (games such as Durak) or the 32 card (particularly Preferans) decks. Playing cards were first introduced into Russia at the beginning of the 17th century from Western and Central Europe (supposedly from Germany and Poland). But they were soon banned, Sobornoye Ulozheniye of 1649 mentioned card games as one of the ""thief's crimes"" punished by lashing, however, since Peter the Great the ban was"
"before the 1500s, the French permanently picked it up and placed it under the king. Packs of 56 cards containing in each suit a king, queen, knight, and knave (as in tarot) were once common in the 15th century. During the mid 16th century, Portuguese traders introduced playing cards to Japan. The first indigenous Japanese deck was the named after the period. Packs with corner and edge indices (i.e. the value of the card printed at the corner(s) of the card) enabled players to hold their cards close together in a fan with one hand (instead of the two hands"
"arrived in Japan in the 5th or 6th century AD and it quickly became a favorite aristocratic pastime. Chinese Chess or Xiangqi seems to have been played during the Tang Dynasty, any earlier attestation is problematic. Several Xiangqi pieces are known from the Northern Song Dynasty (960-1126). It is unknown exactly how Xiangqi developed. Other traditional Asian Chess variants include Shogi (Japan), Makruk (Thailand), Janggi (Korea) and Sittuyin (Burma). Playing cards or tiles were invented in China as early as the 9th century during the Tang Dynasty (618–907). The earliest unambiguous attestation of paper playing cards date back to 1294."
"blocks for printing them had been 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 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"", a trick-taking game, which dates to the Ming Dynasty (1368–1644). 15th-century scholar Lu Rong described it is as being played with 38"
"cards had become fixed in most of Europe and America. French cards used hearts, diamonds, spades and clubs. German cards used acorns, leaves, hearts and bells. It was at this time that designers in Germany, France and England began to draw small figures around the pips. The first transformation playing cards were created by D.W. Soltan and D. Berger in 1801 as illustrations for a German edition of Hudibras. The cards illustrated were the 2 of hearts, 3 of hearts, 5 of hearts and 8 of hearts. In 1803, John Nixon published the first complete set (52 cards) of transformed"
"1763. However, owing to continued French cultural and social influence, circulation and issuance of these notes continued into the mid-1760s. Card money was first used in Dutch Guiana, now Suriname, in 1761. Issues could be on plain cards or playing cards, and were at first cut into circles approximately in diameter, resembling coins. Later card money was rectangular, in order to save on labor, although some issues continued to be round or even hexagonal. Initial issues were in the value of 1, 2.5, and 10 guilders, later followed by issues of 0.5, 5, and 100 guilders. The cards, which had"
"such tile sets are dominoes, mahjong tiles and Rummikub tiles. Chinese dominoes are also available as playing cards. It is not clear whether Emperor Muzong of Liao really played with domino cards as early as 969, though. Legend dates the invention of dominoes in the year 1112, and the earliest known domino rules are from the following decade. 500 years later domino cards were reported as a new invention. Playing cards first appeared in Europe in the last quarter of the 14th century. The earliest European references speak of a Saracen or Moorish game called ""naib"", and in fact an"
"separate system on its own. The card suits originated in China, where playing cards were first invented. The earliest card games were trick-taking games and the invention of suits increased the level of strategy and depth in these games. A card of one suit cannot beat a card from another regardless of its rank. The concept of suits predate playing cards and can be found in Chinese dice and domino games such as Tien Gow. Chinese money-suited cards are believed to be the oldest ancestor to the Latin suit-system. The money-suit system is based on denominations of currency: Coins, Strings"
"early or mid-18th century, and spread throughout the Mississippi River region by 1800. It was played in a variety of forms, with 52 cards, and included both straight poker and stud. 20 card poker was a variant for two players (it is a common English practice to reduce the deck in card games when there are fewer players). The development of poker is linked to the historical movement that also saw the invention of commercial gambling. English actor Joseph Cowell reported that the game was played in New Orleans in 1829, with a deck of 20 cards, and four players"
"Italian playing cards Playing cards (""carte da gioco"") have been in Italy since the late 14th century. As Latin suited cards, they use swords (""spade""), cups (""coppe""), coins (""denari""), and clubs (""bastoni""). All Italian suited decks have three face cards per suit: the ""fante"" (Knave), ""cavallo"" (Knight), and ""re"" (King), unless it is a tarocchi deck in which case a ""donna"" or ""regina"" (Queen) is inserted between the ""cavallo"" and ""re"". Italian suited cards normally only refer to cards originating from northeastern Italy around the former Republic of Venice as the rest of Italy uses Spanish suits, French suits or"
"by other manufacturers and are sold primarily in English-speaking countries where the game is played. A much older expanded deck is tarot, invented in 15th-century Italy, with an extra suit of trumps. Tarot card games were the most popular card games of the 18th century but have since declined. They are still played in various continental European countries with France having the largest community. Tarot decks are not immune to stripping either. The Tarocco Bolognese, Tarocco Siciliano, Industrie und Glück, and Cego decks have excised some pip cards. A French-suited deck of 32 cards, consisting of 7, 8, 9, 10,"
"not limited to, the player's name and team affiliation. The reverse of most modern cards displays statistics and/or biographical information. Cards are most often found in the United States but are also common in countries such as Canada, Cuba, and Japan, where baseball is a popular sport and there are professional leagues. The earliest baseball cards were in the form of trade cards produced in 1868. They evolved into tobacco cards by 1886. In the early 20th century other industries began printing their own version of baseball cards to promote their products, such as bakery/bread cards, caramel cards, dairy cards,"
"Postal card Postal cards are postal stationery with an imprinted stamp or indicium signifying the prepayment of postage. They are sold by postal authorities. On January 26, 1869, Dr. Emanuel Herrmann of Austria described the advantages of a ""Correspondenz Karte"". By October 1, 1869 the world's first postal card was produced by Austria-Hungary. They caught on quickly. By the end of 1870, Great Britain, Finland, Switzerland and Württemberg joined the countries issuing postal cards. In the United States, they were first produced in 1873. Some of the forms taken by postal cards include the regular single card which may be"
"jester or clown), Jokers are not normally considered to be face cards. The earliest Jokers, known as Best Bowers, did not depict people until the late 1860s. Face card In a deck of playing cards, the term face card (US) or court card (British) is generally used to describe a card that depicts a person as opposed to the pip cards. They are also known as picture cards, or until the early 20th century, coat cards. While playing cards were invented in China, Chinese playing cards do not have a concept of face cards. When playing cards arrived in Iran,"
"around 1502 as ""tarocho"". During the 16th century, a new game played with a standard deck but sharing a very similar name (trionfa) was quickly becoming popular. This coincided with the older game being renamed ""tarocchi"". In modern Italian, the singular term is ""tarocco"", which, as a noun, means a type of blood orange, and, as an adjective, means 'fake, counterfeit'. Playing cards first entered Europe in the late 14th century, most likely from Mamluk Egypt, with suits of Batons or Polo sticks (commonly known as Wands by those practicing occult or divinatory tarot), Coins (commonly known as disks, or"
"any number of players. Wildly popular in North America during the 1800s, Faro was eventually overtaken by poker as the preferred card game of gamblers in the early 1900s. The earliest references to a card game named ""Pharaon"" are found in Southwestern France during the reign of Louis XIV. Basset was outlawed in 1691, and Pharaoh emerged several years later as a derivative of Basset, before it too was outlawed. Despite the French ban, Pharaoh and Basset continued to be widely played in England during the 18th century, where it was known as ""Pharo"", an English alternate spelling of ""Pharaoh""."
"in the past two centuries. Other reasons for their popularity were the simplicity of the suit insignia, which simplifies mass production, and the popularity of whist and contract bridge. Playing cards arrived in Europe from Mamluk Egypt around 1370 and were already reported in France in 1377. The French suit insignia was derived from German suits around 1480. Between the transition from the suit of bells to tiles there was a suit of crescents. One of the most distinguishing features of the French cards is the queen. Mamluk cards and their derivatives, the Latin suited and German suited cards, all"
"in two suits show they had a reverse ranking, a feature found in madiao, ""ganjifa"", and old European card games like ombre, tarot, and maw. A fragment of two uncut sheets of Moorish-styled cards of a similar but plainer style were 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 trumps. Four-suited playing cards are first attested in Southern Europe in"
"government, which controlled the design of playing cards, prohibited the printing of cards with this innovation. In central Europe (Trappola 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 Edmund Ludlow and Ann Wilcox. The French pack with this design was printed around 1802 by Thomas Wheeler. 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"