10 Things You Didn't Know About that Deck of Playing Cards

Over 100 million people own a television set in the United States. I bet many more than that staggering number own a standard 52 card deck of playing cards and play card games regularly, but card playing is not an American invention.

It is believed that the first playing cards originated in China soon after the invention of paper in the 12^th century. They were introduced into Europe via trade routes around the 14^th century.

Inevitably, the popular pastime of playing games with a deck of cards spread to North America during exploration and colonization. Think of how many hands must have been played on the long, monotonous voyages overseas from Europe!

Here are some other interesting facts about today's standard deck of playing cards you may not already have known:

1) The face cards as we know them (King, Queen, Jack, and Ace) originated in medieval Rouen, France, but the costumes are that of the English court of Henry VII ¹ .

2) The four suits familiar in England and North America (hearts, diamonds, clubs and spades) originated directly from France. In Germany the suits are hearts, bells, leaves and acorns. In Spain and Italy the suits are batons, coins, swords, and cups ² .

3) People have been playing cards in North America since Columbus came ashore in 1492 ³ .

4) During the early days of English settlement in the 1600's, playing cards were referred to as "devil's books," because playing cards usually meant gambling would be involved. Early colonial authorities tried in vain to stop the settlers from playing cards ¹ .

5) Until the mid 1800's, playing cards had blank backs so that they could be used as calling cards¹ .

6) The first paper currency in North America was printed on the blank backs of playing cards by the French of Quebec in 1685 ⁴ .

7) During the Revolutionary War, the leadership of both sides grew concerned over the card games being played by their men-a great distraction to the task at hand ¹ .

8) Ben Franklin printed playing cards at his printing press shop in the 1700's. Printing the popular playing cards was a lucrative endeavor at the time⁵ .

9) The joker originated from the game of Euchre in the Americas. It was introduced into the standard playing card deck in Europe by poker playing Americans in the 1800's ² .

10) In 2003, the largest playing card collection in the world, assembled by Albert Field who was famous for archiving Salvador Dali's works, was donated to Columbia University. It consists of over 6,000 packs of cards from many time periods and countries⁶ .

If you still want to know more interesting facts and trivia about your deck of playing cards, read Kassidy Emmerson's interesting article, "10 Interesting Facts About a Standard Deck of Playing Cards" here. She has covered ten different facts than I have!

Sources:

1. "In the Cards," by Amy Poole. Early American Life magazine, pp.54-61, Feb. 2009.

2. "Playing Card History - The House of Cards," thehouseofcards.com/card_history.html.

3. "Little Known Facts About the Game of Poker" thegamblersedge.com/fun_poker_facts.htm.

4. "Interesting Facts - Money," skygaze.com/content/facts/money.shtml.

5. "The History Of Playing Cards: Where The Standard 52 Card Deck Came From," anthropology.suite101.com/article.cfm/the-history-of-playing-cards.

6. "Rare Collection of Playing Cards Donated to CUL," columbia.edu/cu/lweb/news/libraries/2003/2003-12-31.playing_cards.html.