From Ancient China to your Dorm room…

From Ancient China to your Dorm room…

Chances are that your home, like the home of most other Americans, contains a standard pack of 52 playing cards. Card games are probably the most common pastimes across countries, continents and cultures. A simple game of cards combines two elements, which have always lured would-be players: chance and skill.

Playing cards have a history dating back to Ancient China, soon after paper was invented in that same country in 150 BC. These Ancient Chinese “Money Cards” had four suits: coins, strings of coins, myriads of strings and tens of myriads. In fact, these cards may have been paper currency that acted as a tool for gaming and the actual stakes being played for.

It isn’t clear exactly how and when playing cards were introduced into Europe. One of the popular beliefs is that the Mamelukes of Egypt (military caste composed of Turkish slaves) brought the first playing cards to Europe in the late 1300s. The Mameluke deck consisted of 52 cards of four suits: polo sticks, coins, swords and cups. Each suit contained ten “spot” cards or number value cards and three face cards: there was a malik (king), na’ib malik (deputy king) and a thani na’ib (second or under deputy). The cards were all hand-painted and nobility were the only ones to use them because they were the only people wealthy enough to afford them.

In Europe, different countries began to experiment with the design of the playing cards. Face cards began to represent European royalty and attendants, i.e. the king, chevalier and knave. Queens were later introduced into playing cards in various ways. In the 1400s, a deck of playing cards consisted of 56 cards, most of them containing a king, queen, knight and valet. German decks had suites of hearts, bells, leaves and acorns and these suits are still present in Eastern and Southeastern European decks today.

Italian and Spanish cards from the 15th century used suits of swords, batons, cups and coins. It is likely that the Tarot deck was invented in Italy at the same time. The four suits used in contemporary decks (hearts, diamonds, spades and clubs) originated in France in the late 1400s.

In early games, the king was the highest valued card in a suit, but the Ace subsequently became the highest card. The Knave of the earlier decks evolved into the Jack. So where did the joker come from? The joker is an American invention. It spread to Europe along with another great American invention, the game of poker.

First published in World Player Magazine