A History of Playing Cards

While most American households have a deck of playing cards, many do not know its origins.

If you trace its history all the way back, you can find early traces of playing cards in China around the 1000s CE. Because playing cards are made of paper and tend to be fragile, no originals from China have been found.

However, we can have a rough idea of what these looked like from later Chinese playing cards. There were 3 suites: coins, strings, and myriads (usually represented by a portrait, as it currently exists today). These last three were modeled after Chinese paper money. Originally, these cards were used as money substitutes in other games (just as we use Monopoly money). 

Cards became widespread in China and then spread to Korea and Japan, taking on different characteristics. They then migrated to Central Asia through the Silk Road, eventually spreading to the Middle East.

While many types of cards arose in the Middle East, the ones we use today are modeled off those of the Mamluk Empire (located in present day Egypt). These cards were very artistic and included 4 suits: chalices (a type of cup), scimitars (a type of sword), coins, and polo sticks (gear for an old game called polo). 

The first Europeans to replicate these cards were the Italians in the 1360s. The suits were nearly identical, with goblets, coins, swords, though they had batons instead of polo sticks, as polo was not a well known sport in Europe at the time. 

These cards are the same as present-day Tarot cards. Also, the Italian and Spanish playing cards still use these suits today and are called “the Latin Suites”. Additionally, the face cards they used were king, queen, and knave (known today as a Jack). In Spain, a knight replaced the queen, as there was no Spanish female royalty.

These Italian cards were at first hand-made, then painted. This made them expensive, thus only allowing the middle and upper classes to buy them. Later, however, cheaper methods were found to produce the cards, and the lower classes were also able to afford them. 

The cards later spread to Germany, and people there found new methods of making the cards, thus making Germany the “card capital of Europe”. Those innovators chose to completely revamp the cards, discarding the old “Latin Suites” and adding suits that were specifically German. These included hearts, acorns, leaves, and halk-bells (a bell to find birds). 

These German cards were not hand-made, either being printed on wood blocks or engraved in stone. Later, with the printing press, this became more streamlined.

When playing cards reached France, card makers adopted a simplified version of the German ones which were easier to print. This version is identical to the ones we used today, though their names were slightly different: along with hearts, clubs were called clovers, spades were called pikes, and diamonds were called tiles. 

Upon reaching England, the suits were given the names we use today: hearts, clubs, spades, and diamonds. Hearts, of course, remained the same, but clovers were renamed because the Latin suites were known in England, so the English adopted the name “clubs” because this was another name for batons. The picture cards underwent many variations, but ultimately ended up with what we have today.

The Jokers started appearing in America during the Civil War for a game called Yuker.

And that’s the history of playing cards.