The Origins of Playing Cards

How did they evolve?

The idea of suit symbols may have originated with Chinese 'Money' cards. However, the suits that made their way into Europe were probably an adaptation of the Islamic cups, swords, coins, and polo sticks. As Europeans didn't understand what the polo sticks were they reassigned them as batons.

The diverse cultural contexts led to a diversity of playing card types. Whereas France was the leading centre for manuscript illumination, Germany led woodcut and engravings, which have a close affinity to printed matter. The Renaissance flowered in Italy…

In consequence, first came the Latin (Spanish) suit systems, which are still employed in Spain and the Americas, Italy, the Philippines, some parts of France and North Africa. Germanic suit systems (including Swiss) evolved after a period of experimentation with different combinations of suits, and finally the French suit system was invented as an after-effect of technical innovation in which the numeral cards were simplified, and which has become the most widely-used suit system around the world.

Back to START :: Jump to END