| Playing cards are rectangular hand-sized piece of heavy paper, or thin plastic used for playing cards. Complete set of playing cards to start a game is called pack or deck. Cards are also used for magic tricks and fortune telling, or cartomancy .
The value of card is mentioned on one side of the card (front side) and closed side (back side) is identical for all the cards in a pack.
Standard pack or truncated version is used in majority of latest games. Special deck is used for several games. Collection card games are identified amongst such games.
Standard deck consists of 54 cards:
52 main cards are characterized by one of the four suits (two colors) and by one of the 13 ranks.
2 special cards, so called jokers, usually can be distinguished as per figure.
Entire standard deck is not used in all the games:
- 52 cards (without jokers);
- 36 cards («Russian» pack, ranks start from 6);
- 32 cards («French» or preference pack, ranks start from seven).
Names of the suits are used predominantly in plural form:
Spades;
Clubs;
Hearts;
Diamonds.
Ranks:
Numerals (9): two (designation 2), three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine and ten;
Figures (3): Jack (J), Queen (Q), King (K);
Ace (A);
Cards have superiority according to the rank: As per standard superiority, two – is the lowest card and Ace is the highest card. Superiority may differ in some games.
Exact time of origin of cards is not known and invention place of playing cards is also not clear. It is mentioned in oldest Chinese dictionary, which acquired popularity in Europe in 1678, that the playing cards were invented in China in 1120 and acquired universal popularity in 1132. Four suits symbolized the seasons of the year and 52 cards indicated number of weeks in a year. Evidence is available that the Chinese and Japanese, even before the invention of paper playing cards, used plates, identical to cards, to play. The plates were made from ivory or wood with painted figures and original playing cards made from sea shells were found in Medieval Japan. Sea-shell playing cards were decorated with figures, images of flowers, sceneries and domestic sketches. With the help of such cards, it is possible to spread-out and “Patience” – sea-shells were spread-out on table and search for the “couples” amongst the cards. Cards became popular in India and Egypt in XIII century.
According to the other versions, cards were invented in Egypt and meant for fortune telling. In Egyptian deck, deck "Tarot" has 78 cards, which were called arcana. Of the 78 cards – 22 were major arcana and 56 – minor arcana. Images on major arcana are made on golden plates, stored in a vault under the ground of Tarot god temple in Egypt. |
The Wichita Falls Police Department has designed the special playing cards for their inmates. The cards feature details of unsolved crime cases, some dating back to 1980s. The police hope that inmates will recognize some cases and will help solve them by providing memories and details they know. All the information will be treated confidentially, and if it leads to solving a case, the reward of $1000 per case will be given. Such inmate playing card programs have been used with success in several cities.
