Playing cards: origin, how many types of decks exist


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Curiosity about the origins of playing cards, between opinions of historians and museums, meaning of the symbols represented and types of decks most widespread.


Origin playing cards

There are no reliable data on the origin of playing cards, but it seems that their existence is already being talked about, for the first time, in a 13th century BC Chinese encyclopedia.

Some historians say, however, that the origin of playing cards is to be found in India, while others argue that playing cards originated in Arab countries.


The Istanbul Museum houses a very old deck of cards, representing the seeds of money, cups, swords and sticks.

Therefore, whatever the correct hypothesis, the playing cards seem to originate from the east, and since the thirteenth century they have been known in Europe.

Even if we do not know exactly the composition of the first bouquets, it is evident that from the beginning there were some with the same seeds that we see today on the most popular Italian bouquets.


Over time, different meanings have been attributed to the symbols of swords, sticks, money and cups.

Some believed that the aforementioned symbols represented the four social classes that made up society at the time of their first diffusion.

According to this thesis the merchants were represented by the money cards, the clergy by those of cups, the peasants by the sticks cards, and the knights by those of swords.


According to another interpretation, the seeds corresponded to the four virtues: money for Charity, cups for Faith, swords for Justice and sticks for moral Firmness.

Starting from these cards other types of decks were formed, characterized by new and different suits or symbols, without detracting from the original ones.

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Among all, those that have had the greatest success are the decks made up of cards divided into hearts, clubs, diamonds and spades.

These cards arose in France in the 15th century.

Types of card decks

There are many types of card decks, but the most used ones are the Italian and French decks.

The first is made up of 40 cards, divided into four groups of different suits; sticks, money, cups and swords.

Each of these four groups includes ten cards: an ace, a 2, a 3, a 4, a 5, a 6, a 7 and three figures.

Italian cards are found in many regional variants.

In each variant the representation of the symbols and figures slightly changes.


For example in the Neapolitan cards, the three figures are, in order of increasing value, horse, woman and king.

In Trieste, however, the three figures are infantryman, horse and king.

To play with 40 cards, the jokers, 8, 9 and 10 must be removed from the French deck.

Instead of the last three, the three figures will go.

The infantryman will be worth 8 points, the queen 9 and the king 10.

The broom, the briscola and the tressette, in all its variants, are among the most popular games, they are very fun even if they are not particularly demanding, such as, for example, bridge, poker or canasta.

Things You Don’t Know About Playing Cards (March 2024)


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