Everything you need to know about playing cards

20 October 2012

By John Marchel

Playing cards have been known to make an excellent feeler gauge since they are so precise in thickness, varying from .010 to .011, depending on the make of the cards.

In October 1492, sailors aboard Columbus’s ships threw away all their playing cards thinking they were bringing them bad luck. Almost immediately afterward, land was spotted.

Who are the kissing kings? King of clubs and King of Diamonds. The kissing kings are the two that meet in the middle of a newly opened deck of cards.

It’s believed by many that the French revolution led to the changing of the hierarchy of playing cards. The ace, not the king, became the highest-ranked card.

It’s been documented that solitaire is the most widely played game around the world.

During WWII the US Army quartermaster brought over 50 million decks of playing cards in one year.

During the Civil War, English manufactures added playing cards to the cargoes of southern blockade-runners. The cards bore confederate flags and were inscribed with “Confederate States of America.”

When one adds up the number of letters used for the names of playing cards – ace (3), two (3), three (5), four (4), five (4), six (3), seven (5), eight (5), nine (4), ten (3), jack, (4), queen (5), king (4) - the total comes to 52, the exact number of cards in a standard deck.

William Shakespeare, in 1610, is the first known one to use the term “deck” to describe what was commonly known than as a “pack” of playing cards.

The colors of playing cards, red and black, are thought to be symbolism for day and night.

When Americans began to make their own decks of cards in the later part of the 1800s, it was America where the following features were added to playing cards and became the standard:
- cards became double-headed
- varnished surfaces
- indexes; on the upper and lower corners of each card
- rounded corners
- the joker was introduced

The United States Playing Card Company is the largest manufacturer of playing cards in the world and sells more than 100 million decks of cards per year, including more than 20 million decks to casinos.

In parts of India, games are played with packs of circular playing cards with eight, 10 or more suits.