So where do playing cards come from?
Most of us had our first cards from mom and dad. When we were little kids, a used platform kept us busy and out of reach. We will soon graduate to go fish and War, (with cards that had torn corners, chocolate stains, and a little peanut butter). Then when we were teenagers we went to poker penny. We learned to play and we played to win. As adults, we still play cards, whether it’s social games with our friends or a bit of blackjack, poker, or baccarat at the casino.
Earliest history of playing cards
The earliest known history of the origin of playing cards dates back to ancient China, where they are believed to have been invented during the 9th century. Some historians suggest that the earliest playing cards may have been actual coins used for gambling. Tea money cards had four sticks: coins, strings of coins, myriads and tens of myriads. A myriad is a group, lot, or heap of currency. (A myriad equals 10,000 units.) In the 11th century, the popularity of playing cards spread throughout the Asian continent.
European design changes
Playing cards first appeared in Europe around 1377. At the time, a single deck contained 52 cards made up of four suits: polo sticks, wedges, spades, and cups. Each suit contained ten place cards The value of each card was determined by the number of suit symbols on each card. Each suit also had three runs name cards; King, Vice King, and Under the Deputy King.
In fifteenth-century Europe the suits of the cards varied from one country to another until France invented the four suits that are now the most common: spades, hearts, diamonds, and clubs. It is widely believed that each of the four suits represented a part of society. swords represents the nobility of knights (the pointed tip means a spear). hearts represented the clergy, diamonds for merchants and clubs for peasants Europeans also changed the runs card designs to represent European royalty: King Queen, and Rascal, who is the son of the King and Queen, or the Prince. Today the Knave is known as the Jack.
Playing cards in America
Playing cards first came to America with Columbus in 1492. When the Puritans settled Massachusetts Bay in the 17th century, they outlawed playing cards because of their hostility to gambling. However, the card game was prevalent in other colonies and was considered a suitable form of entertainment. As the country expanded, the taverns, roadhouses, and riverboats of the Mississippi flourished with card players and sharks. The pioneers brought their cards to California during the gold rush.
America stuck with the European design; however, after the civil war, American card companies added two pranksters to each deck to promote a popular trump card game called Eucher, although pranksters never gained wide popularity. Today very few card games use the joker. Among them are Basket, Crazy Eights, and the casino game pai gow poker, Where the wildcard is a wildcard.
There are currently over nine hundred card games that use the standard 15th century French deck. Almost every household in the developed world has at least one deck of cards, but a typical casino can use up to twenty-five thousand decks in a month. Since casino card games require skill, our interest in them will not change any time soon.
