Cups, coins, swords and batons — the oldest European set, imported from Mamluk Egypt in the 1370s (1370s)
Still used in Spain, southern Italy and much of South America
General knowledge · Culture & customs
Playing card suits
Latin suits from the 1370s; French suits c. 1480
Games and customs — the four marks on a pack of cards
The categories into which a pack of cards is divided, and a neat map of European cultural borrowing. The oldest European set, the Latin suits of cups, coins, swords and batons, arrived from Mamluk Egypt in the 1370s; German makers replaced them around 1460 with hearts, bells, leaves and acorns; and French makers simplified those around 1480 into cœurs, carreaux, trèfles and piques — the shapes English-speakers call hearts, diamonds, clubs and spades. The English names are the giveaway: they were carried over from the older Latin suits, which is why a trefoil is called a club and a pike-head a spade.
How to spot them
- ▸Cups, coins, swords and batons in Spain and Italy; acorns, leaves, hearts and bells in Germany
- ▸The French shapes that conquered the world: cœur, carreau, trèfle, pique
- ▸Red and black; the 'pointed' and 'rounded' pairs used as a bridge mnemonic
- ▸A tarot pack adds a fifth group of 21 trumps plus the Fool
Key facts
Acorns, leaves, hearts and bells, settled on by German makers around 1460 (c. 1460)
German Switzerland went its own way with acorns, shields, roses and bells
Trèfles, carreaux, cœurs and piques — clovers, tiles, hearts and pikes (c. 1480)
The French simplification of the German set; two colours and two easy stencils made them cheap to print
Why a clover is called a club and a pike-head is called a spade
The English names were carried over from the older Latin batons and swords (Italian spade)
The most ornate card in an English pack, because it once had to carry the tax stamp (1712)
Duty on cards was shown by a hand stamp on the ace of spades; from 1765 it was printed by the Stamp Office
The 'one-eyed jacks' and the 'suicide king', drawn in profile by old Rouen stencils
The king of hearts appears to drive his sword into his own head
A fifth group of 21 trumps plus the Fool, added in northern Italy around 1440 (c. 1440)
Made for the trick-taking game of trionfi; occultists later renamed them the Major Arcana
Quick-fire facts
- •The Latin suits — cups, coins, swords and clubs (batons) — reached Europe from Mamluk Egypt and Moorish Granada in the 1370s
- •In the Turko-Arabic original, the 'clubs' were polo sticks; Europeans changed them because polo was unfamiliar
- •German makers settled on hearts, bells, leaves and acorns around 1460; the Swiss-German suits are shields, roses, acorns and bells
- •The French suits were derived from the German ones around 1480 and named trèfle (clover), carreau (tile), cœur (heart) and pique (pike)
- •English 'clubs' and 'spades' preserve the Latin batons and swords — Italian spade means swords, not shovels
- •In bridge the suits rank clubs, diamonds, hearts, spades, from lowest to highest
- •The ace of spades became the fanciest card because it carried proof that stamp duty had been paid; duty on cards ran from 1711 to 1960
- •Tarot packs add 21 trumps and the Fool — 22 cards later christened the Major Arcana by occultists, a term card players do not use
- •Divinatory tarot renames the suits wands, cups, swords and pentacles; the esoteric use of tarot began in France in the late 18th century
- •Some Asian traditions have entirely separate suit systems, including money-suited Chinese packs and Japanese hanafuda
Drill it — 9 cards
1 / 9new card
Sources
- David Parlett — The Oxford Guide to Card Games
- Ronald Decker, Thierry Depaulis and Michael Dummett — A Wicked Pack of Cards: The Origins of the Occult Tarot