Go Fish or Fish is a card game usually played by two to five players, although it can be played with up to 10 players. It can be played in about 5 to 15 minutes.
86-440: Five cards are dealt from a standard 52-card deck to each player, or seven cards if there are only two players. The remaining cards are shared between the players, usually spread out in a disorderly pile referred to as the "ocean" or "pool". The player whose turn it is to play asks any other player for their cards of a particular face value. For example, Ed may ask, "Peter, do you have any eights?" Ed must have at least one card of
172-526: A Catalan language rhyme dictionary which lists naip among words ending in -ip . According to Denning, the only attested meaning of this Catalan word is "playing card". This suggests that cards may have been "reasonably well known" in Catalonia (now part of Spain) at that time, perhaps introduced as a result of maritime trade with the Mamluk rulers of Egypt. The earliest record of playing cards in central Europe
258-698: A deck of cards or pack of cards . The most common type of playing card in the West is the French-suited , standard 52-card pack , of which the most widespread design is the English pattern , followed by the Belgian-Genoese pattern . However, many countries use other, traditional types of playing card, including those that are German , Italian , Spanish and Swiss-suited . Tarot cards (also known locally as Tarocks or tarocchi ) are an old genre of playing card that
344-573: A trick-taking game , which dates to the Ming Dynasty (1368–1644). Fifteenth-century scholar Lu Rong described it is as being played with 38 "money cards" divided into four suits : 9 in coins , 9 in strings of coins (which may have been misinterpreted as sticks from crude drawings), 9 in myriads (of coins or of strings), and 11 in tens of myriads (a myriad is 10,000). The two latter suits had Water Margin characters instead of pips on them with Chinese to mark their rank and suit. The suit of coins
430-512: A hobby or for monetary value. Playing cards were probably invented during the Tang dynasty around the 9th century, as a result of the usage of woodblock printing technology. The reference to a leaf game in a 9th-century text known as the Collection of Miscellanea at Duyang ( Chinese : 杜阳杂编 ; pinyin : Dùyáng zábiān ), written by Tang dynasty writer Su E, is often cited in connection to
516-469: A joker functioning as a wild card dates to 1875 with a variation of poker. Playing cards were also some of the earliest products to be sold in packaging. Early card packs were sold in paper sleeves held closed with a string. The 19th century saw the apparition of progressively more complex cardboard packaging, with tuck-flap boxes becoming common by the end of the century. Cellophane wrappers were common by 1937. The Japanese video game company Nintendo
602-455: A large diffusion. This was followed by the innovation of reversible court cards. This invention is attributed to a French card maker of Agen in 1745. But the French government, which controlled the design of playing cards, prohibited the printing of cards with this innovation. In central Europe ( Trappola cards) and Italy ( Tarocco Bolognese ) the innovation was adopted during the second half of
688-514: A lightened sentence. Because of the long history and wide variety in designs, playing cards are also collector's items. In 1911, the New York Times described May King Van Rensselaer 's playing card collection of over 900 decks as the largest in the world. According to Guinness World Records , the largest playing card collection comprises 11,087 decks and is owned by Liu Fuchang of China. Individual playing cards are also collected, such as
774-422: A number of variations of these basic rules: If, when fishing, a player draws a rank they did not have, they should ask for it on their next turn. Otherwise, they should rotate among the ranks that they already hold. In the more difficult variants, strategy often requires memorizing which cards each player possesses. Unlike many card games, Go Fish depends on the honor system ; lying about the contents of one's hand
860-510: A pack with edge indices and Latin suits was printed by Infirerra and dated 1693. However, this feature was commonly used only from the end of the 18th century. The first American-manufactured (French) deck with this innovation was the Saladee's Patent, printed by Samuel Hart in 1864. In 1870, he and his cousins at Lawrence & Cohen followed up with the Squeezers, the first cards with indices that had
946-571: A seated " king ", an upper marshal that held his suit symbol up, and a lower marshal that held it down. The latter two correspond with the Ober and Unter cards still found today in German and Swiss playing cards . The Italians and Iberians replaced the Ober / Unter system with the " Knight " and " Fante " or " Sota " before 1390, perhaps to make the cards more visually distinguishable. In England,
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#17328585829121032-611: A total of 32 cards. It is popular in France, the Low Countries , Central Europe and is used to play piquet , belote , bezique and skat . Values in Russian 36-card stripped deck (used to play durak and many other traditional games) range from 6 to 10. It is also used in the Sri Lankan, whist -based game known as omi . Forty-card French suited packs are common in northwest Italy; these remove
1118-633: Is a non-existent title so it may not have been in the earliest versions; without this rank, the Mamluk suits would structurally be the same as a Ganjifa suit. In fact, the word "Kanjifah" appears in Arabic on the king of swords and is still used in parts of the Middle East to describe modern playing cards. Influence from further east can explain why the Mamluks, most of whom were Central Asian Turkic Kipchaks , called their cups tuman , which means "myriad" (10,000) in
1204-612: Is attributed to the Persian word ganj meaning "treasure." Gen. Houtum-Schindler suggested to Stewart Culin that the last two syllables in the word ganjifa may be derived from the Chinese chi-p'ai (= 紙牌 zhǐpái ) meaning "playing cards" In a related passage, William Chatto explains that an early Chinese term was ya-pae (= 牙牌 yápái “dominoes”) meaning "bone ticket", and that the term che-pae came later, meaning literally "paper ticket" (1848: 58). These different terms could account for
1290-603: Is believed by some researchers to be a ban on card games in the city of Bern in 1367, but this source is disputed as the earliest copy available dates to 1398 and may have been amended. Generally accepted as the first Italian reference is a Florentine ban dating to 1377. Also appearing in 1377 was the treatise by John of Rheinfelden , in which he describes playing cards and their moral meaning. From this year onwards more and more records (usually bans) of playing cards occur, first appearing in England as early as 1413. Among
1376-559: Is difficult to prevent. It is often beneficial for the player to conceal the cards they hold in order to prevent other players from knowing which cards they can ask for. This can be accomplished by consistently asking different players for the same rank of card. Instead of using a standard 52 playing card deck, various specialty decks have been manufactured including the 169 count playing card Kids Classic Go Fish Card Game by U.S. Games Systems . Other specialist card packs which can be used to play similar games have also been produced including
1462-406: Is highly automated. Large sheets of paper are glued together to create a sheet of pasteboard ; the glue may be black or dyed another dark color to increase the card stock's opacity . In the industry, this black compound is sometimes known as "gick". Some card manufacturers may purchase pasteboard from various suppliers; large companies such as USPCC create their own proprietary pasteboard. After
1548-408: Is in reverse order with 9 of coins being the lowest going up to 1 of coins as the high card. Despite the wide variety of patterns, the suits show a uniformity of structure. Every suit contains twelve cards with the top two usually being the court cards of king and vizier and the bottom ten being pip cards . Some decks can contain 8 suits to make a 96-card deck, like the deck for Ganjifa . Half
1634-616: Is inconclusive as to which, however the Italian-suited cards are closest in appearance to the Mamluk cards and the Spanish design appears to be simplification. The polo sticks depicted in one of the suits used by the Mamluks were modified by the Italians into ceremonial batons; these were changed in the Spanish design to wooden clubs. The earliest European mention of playing cards appears in 1371 in
1720-401: Is marked with distinguishing motifs. Often the front (face) and back of each card has a finish to make handling easier. They are most commonly used for playing card games , and are also used in magic tricks , cardistry , card throwing , and card houses ; cards may also be collected. Playing cards are typically palm-sized for convenient handling, and usually are sold together in a set as
1806-462: Is still very popular in France, central and Eastern Europe and Italy. Customised Tarot card decks are also used for divination ; including tarot card reading and cartomancy . Asia, too, has regional cards such as the Japanese hanafuda , Chinese money-suited cards , or Indian ganjifa . The reverse side of the card is often covered with a pattern that will make it difficult for players to look through
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#17328585829121892-461: Is then split into individual uncut sheets , which are cut into single cards and sorted into decks. The corners are then rounded, after which the decks are packaged, commonly in tuck boxes wrapped in cellophane . The tuck box may have a seal applied. Card manufacturers must pay special attention to the registration of the cards, as non- symmetrical cards can be used to cheat. Airlines have produced playing cards to give to passengers since
1978-590: The Albert Field Collection of Playing Cards, an archive of over 6,000 individual decks from over 50 countries and dating back to the 1550s. In 2018 the university digitized over 100 of its decks. Since 2017, Vanderbilt University has been home to the 1,000-volume George Clulow and United States Playing Card Co. Gaming Collection , which has been called one of the "most complete and scholarly collections [of books on cards and gaming] that has ever been gathered together". Journals and magazines dedicated to
2064-751: The Metropolitan Museum of Art , is the oldest complete set of ordinary playing cards made in Europe from the 15th century. As cards spread from Italy to Germanic countries, the Latin suits were replaced with the suits of leaves (or shields), hearts (or roses), bells, and acorns. France initially used Latin-suited cards and the Aluette pack used today in western France may be a relic of that time, but around 1480, French card manufacturers, perhaps in order to facilitate mass production, went over to very much simplified versions of
2150-640: The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (in 2008), Delaware's Department of Correction , the Florida Department of Law Enforcement , and Rhode Island 's Department of Corrections , among others. The Indiana Department of Correction sells cold case cards in prisons, and in 2024, Mississippi Coast Crime Stoppers created cold case playing cards, distributing 2,500 decks. Among inmates, they may be called "snitch cards". Prisoners with information may be motivated to come forward in order to receive
2236-474: The Mughal court, and lavish sets were made, from materials such as precious stone-inlaid ivory or tortoise shell ( darbar kalam ). The game later spread to the general public, whereupon cheaper sets ( bazâr kalam ) would be made from materials such as wood , palm leaf , stiffened cloth or pasteboard. Typically Ganjifa cards have coloured backgrounds, with each suit having a different colour. Different types exist, and
2322-455: The Mughal emperors in the 16th century. The term has been used at times in many countries throughout the Middle East and western Asia. In Kuwait, the word janjifah has become a general term and so is applied to the internationally known French deck . Despite the significance of Persia in the history of ganjifa cards, the very earliest known text reference ( Ibn Taghribirdi ) and card specimens ( Mamluk era ) are from Egypt. An exhibition in
2408-480: The Safari Pals packs which use animal characteristics to form the sets and packs which use personalized names to form the sets. Go Fish also paved the way for a similar, particular kind of card game called Quartets . Playing card#Anglo-American-French A playing card is a piece of specially prepared card stock , heavy paper, thin cardboard, plastic-coated paper , cotton-paper blend, or thin plastic that
2494-462: The stamp duty like the ace of spades in England, the ace of clubs in France or the ace of coins in Italy are also collectible as that is where the manufacturer's logo is usually placed. Typically, playing cards have indices printed in the upper-left and lower-right corners. While this design does not restrict which hand players hold their cards, some left-handed players may prefer to fan their cards in
2580-403: The "leaf" game existed at least since the mid-Tang dynasty and associated its invention with the development of printed sheets as a writing medium. However, Ouyang also claims that the "leaves" were pages of a book used in a board game played with dice, and that the rules of the game were lost by 1067. Other games revolving around alcoholic drinking involved using playing cards of a sort from
2666-564: The 'Mir' (or King) is given a value of 12 points, and the second court card, the 'Ghodi' (or Vizir, Cavalier or Queen) is worth 11. The other cards are worth their pip values, including the ace which has a value of 1. Several players can play the game. Mr. Gordhandas suggests 5-7 players, with 6 being the ideal number. The aim is to achieve a total value of 17 with the first two cards dealt, or the nearest number below this total. Players with low value cards can continue to draw further cards to try to improve their total. Variations can be played where 21
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2752-539: The 15th century. The piece of playing card collected by Edmund de Unger may be from the period of the 12-14th centuries. The term Kanjifah can be found in the 1839 Calcutta edition of the One Thousand and One Nights , in Arabic, at the end of night 460. The first known reference can be found in a 15th-century Arabic text, written by the Egyptian historian Ibn Taghribirdi (died 1470). In his history of Egypt he mentions how
2838-628: The 17th century, the money-suited deck had acquired a new card depicting a Persian merchant. The earliest playing cards used in India were known as Patrakrida ; they predated Ganjifa by several centuries, though no manuals exist today as to how they were used. Rudolf von Leyden suggested that the Ganjifa cards may have been brought by the first Mughals from their ancestral homeland in Inner Asia. A key reference comes from an early 16th-century biography of Bâbur ,
2924-418: The 18th century. In Great Britain, the pack with reversible court cards was patented in 1799 by Edward Ludlow and Ann Wilcox. Not being registered card-makers, they worked with printer Thomas Wheeler to produce a French-suited pack using this patent, which was first sold in 1801. Sharp corners wear out more quickly, and could possibly reveal the card's value, so they were replaced with rounded corners. Before
3010-448: The 1920s, with the practice reaching a zenith in the 1960s and 1970s. However, the practice has become less common in recent decades. Delta Air Lines has created several series of decks, with several featuring art by Daniel C. Sweeney, John Hardy, and Jack Laycox. Gambling corporations commonly have playing cards made specifically for their casinos. As casinos consume many decks daily, they sometimes resell used cards that were "on
3096-527: The 8-suited pack, showing that the Persians had the same suits and ranks as the Mughals. The Austrian National Library possess eight Safavid lacquer paintings from the 16th-century that mimic ganjifeh cards. Despite being produced around the same time as Shirazi's poem, they do not match his description. Shah Abbas II (r 1642-66) banned ganjifeh and the game decline precipitously with no known rules surviving into
3182-455: The 8s through 10s like Latin-suited decks. 24-card decks, removing 2s through 8s are also sold in Austria and Bavaria to play Schnapsen . A pinochle deck consists of two copies of a 24-card schnapsen deck, thus 48 cards. The 78-card Tarot Nouveau adds the knight card between queens and jacks along with 21 numbered trumps and the unnumbered Fool . Today the process of making playing cards
3268-559: The Asian continent and later came into Egypt. The oldest surviving cards in the world are four fragments found in the Keir Collection and one in the Benaki Museum . They are dated to the 12th and 13th centuries (late Fatimid , Ayyubid , and early Mamluk periods). A near complete pack of Mamluk playing cards dating to the 15th century, and of similar appearance to the fragments above,
3354-752: The British museum in 2013 noted "Playing cards are known in Egypt from the twelfth century AD. Ganjafeh was a popular card game in Iran and the Arab world." For example, the word 'kanjifah' ( كنجفة ) is written in the top right corner of the king of swords, on the Mamluk Egyptian deck witnessed by L.A. Mayer in the Topkapı Palace museum. The Mamluk cards are difficult to date with any certainty, but Mayer estimated these cards to be from
3440-454: The German suit symbols. A combination of Latin and Germanic suit pictures and names resulted in the French suits of trèfles (clovers), carreaux (tiles), cœurs (hearts), and piques (pikes) around 1480. The trèfle (clover) was probably derived from the acorn and the pique (pike) from the leaf of the German suits. The names pique and spade , however, may have derived from
3526-541: The Latin European cards and Chinese money-suited cards become more apparent when the Mamluk Kanjifa is described. Looking at the actual games played with Ganjifa cards, Andrew Leibs points out that the cards are divided into strong and weak suits, and in one set the order of the numerical cards is reversed, so that the order runs King, Vizier, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10 the weakest. This feature can also be found in
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3612-443: The Mamluks were more conservative with the suits. The addition of new suits in both Persia and India was to make the game more challenging as memory is the most important skill in the eponymous trick-taking game . Chinese money-suited cards copied their pips directly from Chinese banknotes. In 1294, Gaykhatu began printing an imitation of Yuan banknotes in Iran although these were withdrawn quickly after merchants rejected them. By
3698-569: The Ottomon Turks in 1517. They were also mentioned by Ibn Hajar al-Haytami . The lack of references or cards after the 16th century is likely due to the Ottomans taking a harder stance against cards and gambling which would last until the 19th century. The earliest Persian reference is found in Ahli Shirazi 's (died 1535) poem, 'Rubaiyat-e-Ganjifa', there is a short verse for each of the 96 cards in
3784-512: The Sultan Al-Malik Al-Mu'ayyad played kanjafah for money when he was an emir. The cards used by the Mamluks most likely entered Italy and Spain during the 1370s. As early as 1895, William Henry Wilkinson pointed out the similarities between Spanish and Italian playing cards and Chinese money-suited cards . He was unaware of the existence of the Mamluk cards since Mayer did not make his discovery until 1939. The similarities between
3870-537: The Tang dynasty onward. However, these cards did not contain suits or numbers. Instead, they were printed with instructions or forfeits for whoever drew them. The earliest dated instance of a game involving cards occurred on 17 July 1294 when the Ming Department of Punishments caught two gamblers, Yan Sengzhu and Zheng Pig-Dog, playing with paper cards. Wood blocks for printing the cards were impounded, together with nine of
3956-564: The Turkic, Mongolian, and Jurchen languages. Wilkinson postulated that the cups may have been derived from inverting the Chinese and Jurchen ideogram for "myriad", 万 , which was pronounced as something like man in Middle Chinese . The Mamluk court cards showed abstract designs or calligraphy not depicting persons possibly due to religious proscription in Sunni Islam , though they did bear
4042-556: The United States and other countries have created decks of cards that feature photos, names, and details of cold case victims or missing persons on each card. These decks are sold in prison commissaries , or even to the public, in the hopes that an inmate (or anyone else) might provide a new lead. Cold case card programs have been introduced in over a dozen states, including by Oklahoma 's State Bureau of Investigation , Connecticut 's Division of Criminal Justice (five editions),
4128-434: The [casino] floor". The cards sold to the public are altered, either by cutting the deck's corners or by punching a hole in the deck, to prevent them from being used for cheating in the casino. Casinos may also sell decks separately as a souvenir item — one notable example is Jerry's Nugget playing cards , released in 1970. Police departments, local governments, state prison systems, and even private organizations across
4214-445: The account books of Johanna, Duchess of Brabant and Wenceslaus I, Duke of Luxembourg , an entry dated May 14, 1379, by receiver general of Brabant Renier Hollander reads: "Given to Monsieur and Madame four peters and two florins, worth eight and a half sheep, for the purchase of packs of cards". In his book of accounts for 1392 or 1393, Charles or Charbot Poupart, treasurer of the household of Charles VI of France , records payment for
4300-399: The actual cards. William Henry Wilkinson suggests that the first cards may have been actual paper currency which doubled as both the tools of gaming and the stakes being played for, similar to trading card games. Using paper money was inconvenient and risky so they were substituted by play money known as "money cards". One of the earliest games in which we know the rules is madiao ,
4386-494: The cards, which impacted sales due to the low replacement rate. As a solution, Nintendo produced a cheaper and lower-quality line of playing cards, Tengu , while also conducting product offerings in other cities such as Osaka , where card game profits were high. In addition, local merchants were interested in the prospect of a continuous renewal of decks, thus avoiding the suspicions that reusing cards would generate. Columbia University 's Rare Book and Manuscript Library holds
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#17328585829124472-575: The designs, number of suits, and physical size of the cards can vary considerably. With the exception of Mamluk Kanjifa and the Chads of Mysore, each suit contains ten pip cards and two court cards , the king and the vizier or minister. The backs of the cards are typically a uniform colour, without patterning. The earliest origins of the cards remain uncertain, but Ganjifa cards as they are known today are believed to have originated in Persia . The first syllable
4558-400: The desired imagery is etched into printing plates , the art is printed onto each side of the pasteboard sheet, which is coated with a textured or smooth finish, sometimes called a varnish or paint coating. These coatings can be water- or solvent-based, and different textures and visual effects can be achieved by adding certain dyes or foils, or using multiple varnish processes. The pasteboard
4644-512: The different spellings and pronunciations of 'Ganjifa'. These remain unproven theories, but the 18th century, traveler Carsten Niebuhr claimed to have seen Arabian merchants in Bombay playing with Chinese cards. In the 19th century Jean Louis Burckhardt visited Mecca and wrote that "cards are played in almost every Arab coffee-house (they use small Chinese cards)". Ganjifa became popular in India under
4730-576: The early patterns of playing card were those derived from the Mamluk suits of cups, coins, swords, and polo sticks, which are still used in traditional Latin decks . As polo was an obscure sport to Europeans then, the polo-sticks became batons or cudgels. In addition to Catalonia in 1371, the presence of playing cards is attested in 1377 in Switzerland , and 1380 in many locations including Florence and Paris . Wide use of playing cards in Europe can, with some certainty, be traced from 1377 onward. In
4816-636: The existence of playing cards. However the connection between playing cards and the leaf game is disputed. The reference describes Princess Tongchang, daughter of Emperor Yizong of Tang , playing the "leaf game" in 868 with members of the Wei clan, the family of the princess's husband . The first known book on the "leaf" game was called the Yezi Gexi and allegedly written by a Tang woman. It received commentary by writers of subsequent dynasties. The Song dynasty (960–1279) scholar Ouyang Xiu (1007–1072) asserts that
4902-507: The face cards but the number of cards per deck, the use of numeric indices, or even minor shape and arrangement differences of the pips can be used to distinguish them. Some patterns have been around for hundreds of years. Jokers are not part of any pattern as they are a relatively recent invention and lack any standardized appearance so each publisher usually puts its own trademarked illustration into their decks. The wide variation of jokers has turned them into collectible items. Any card that bore
4988-448: The following apply: Played in partnerships (two against two). Some call this game 'Dugi'. In this game the order of the suits and the cards is the same as for the individual ganjifa trick taking game described above, however the aim of the game is for one partnership to win all the tricks. The partnership dealt the King in the lead suit has to take on this challenge. It is possible to determine
5074-455: The founder of the Mughal dynasty. In his work the Baburnama , Babur notes in the year 933H (1527) that he had a pack of Ganjifa cards sent to Shah Hassan. This took place in the month of Ramzan, on the night he left Agra to travel to nearby Fatehpur Sikri (Uttar Pradesh, India). The earliest surviving rules date to around 1600 in India. When Edward Terry visited India in the first quarter of
5160-549: The highest trump card is the Jack of the trump suit, called the right bower (from the German Bauer ); the second-highest trump, the left bower , is the jack of the suit of the same color as trumps. The joker was invented c. 1860 as a third trump, the imperial or best bower , which ranked higher than the other two bowers . The name of the card is believed to derive from juker , a variant name for euchre. The earliest reference to
5246-413: The king and the viceroy/vizier. The second viceroy rank found in the kanjifa pack is not based on any historical title and may be a Mamluk invention. According to his hypothesis, the Chinese money-suited pack entered Persia where the Persians added three new ranks: the 10, viceroy, and king to make a 48-card pack. He suggests the Persians eventually changed most of the Chinese suits to fit their culture while
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#17328585829125332-886: The king. Packs of 56 cards containing in each suit a king, queen, knight, and knave (as in tarot) were once common in the 15th century. In 1628, the Mistery of Makers of Playing Cards of the City of London (now the Worshipful Company of Makers of Playing Cards ) was incorporated under a royal charter by Charles I ; the Company received livery status from the Court of Aldermen of the City of London in 1792. The Company still exists today, having expanded its member ranks to include "card makers... card collectors, dealers, bridge players, [and] magicians". During
5418-472: The lead suit by the day or night rule as above, or by cutting cards. The following game rules are taken from an account by John McLeod This game can be played with any pack of cards, including the Mughal types, and the shorter 48 card decks. European style packs can be used by removing the jacks. Each suit therefore has two court cards, and ten numeral cards. The game has some similarities with Blackjack . In Naqsh
5504-447: The local variation known for abstract and highly stylized suit symbols and extra suits. This is a trick-taking game , played individually. This is the game most commonly associated with ganjifa cards, each player playing for themself. The objective is to win the most cards by taking tricks. At least three players are required. In some games 4 players play individually, and it is also possible to play in pairs. The rules vary, but generally
5590-540: The lowest court card was called the " knave " which originally meant male child (compare German Knabe ), so in this context the character could represent the " prince ", son to the king and queen; the meaning servant developed later. Queens appeared sporadically in packs as early as 1377, especially in Germany. Although the Germans abandoned the queen before the 1500s, the French permanently picked it up and placed it under
5676-486: The market not wanting to be associated with criminal ties, but Nintendo founder Fusajiro Yamauchi continued, becoming the largest producer of hanafuda within a few years. With the increase of the cards' popularity, Yamauchi hired assistants to mass-produce to satisfy the demand. Even with a favorable start, the business faced financial struggle due to operating in a niche market , the slow and expensive manufacturing process, high product price, alongside long durability of
5762-472: The mid 16th century, Portuguese traders introduced playing cards to Japan. The first indigenous Japanese deck was the Tenshō karuta named after the Tenshō period . Packs with corner and edge indices (i.e. the value of the card printed at the corner(s) or edges of the card) enabled players to hold their cards close together in a fan with one hand (instead of the two hands previously used). An early example of
5848-502: The mid-19th century, British, American, and French players preferred blank backs. The need to hide wear and tear and to discourage writing on the back led cards to have designs, pictures, photos, or advertising on the reverse. The United States introduced the joker into the deck. It was devised for the game of euchre , which spread from Europe to America beginning shortly after the American Revolutionary War . In euchre,
5934-450: The old games of Tarot , Ombre , and Maw played in Europe, and the Chinese money-suited card game of ' Madiao '. He suggests these games may have a common ancestor. Kanjifa consists of 52 cards divided into four suits: Richard Ettinghausen speculated that importation of European cards killed off manufacturers in Egypt and the Levant. Trade continued after the conquest of these regions by
6020-719: The opposite direction. Some designs exist with indices in all four corners. French decks come in a variety of patterns and deck sizes. The 52-card deck is the most popular deck and includes 13 ranks of each suit with reversible "court" or face cards. Each suit includes an ace , depicting a single symbol of its suit, a king, queen, and jack, each depicted with a symbol of their suit; and ranks two through ten, with each card depicting that number of pips of its suit. As well as these 52 cards, commercial packs often include between one and six jokers, most often two. Decks with fewer than 52 cards are known as stripped decks . The piquet pack has all values from 2 through 6 in each suit removed for
6106-415: The original Mamluk deck, while Latin and Germanic decks average fewer. Latin decks usually drop the higher-valued pip cards, while Germanic decks drop the lower-valued ones. Within suits, there are regional or national variations called "standard patterns." Because these patterns are in the public domain , this allows multiple card manufacturers to recreate them. Pattern differences are most easily found in
6192-400: The other players, and he gets another turn. When any player at any time has four cards of one face value, it forms a book, and the cards must be placed face up in front of that player. If the player's hand is empty, they have to draw a card from the pool. Play proceeds to the left. When all sets of cards have been laid down in books, the game ends. The player with the most books wins. There are
6278-512: The painting of three sets of cards. From about 1418 to 1450 professional card makers in Ulm , Nuremberg , and Augsburg created printed decks. Playing cards even competed with devotional images as the most common uses for woodcuts in this period. Most early woodcuts of all types were coloured after printing, either by hand or, from about 1450 onwards, stencils . These 15th-century playing cards were probably painted. The Flemish Hunting Deck , held by
6364-419: The present. Around the eighteenth or nineteenth centuries, the game of As-Nas became more popular. In 1895, General Albert Houtum-Schindler described ganjifeh and As-Nas with the following comments: Michael Dummett noted the differences between Mamluk kanjifa and Safavid ganjifeh and postulated that there was an earlier ancestor. This ur-ganjifeh would be similar to kanjifa but with only two court cards,
6450-413: The rank he requested. Peter must hand over all cards of that rank if possible, and is responsible for delivering the cards to the player no matter their location. If he has none, Peter tells Ed to "go fish" (or just simply "fish"), and Ed draws a card from the pool and places it in his own hand. Then it is the next player's turn – unless the card Ed drew is the card he asked for, in which case he shows it to
6536-418: The ranks on the cards. Nā'ib would be borrowed into French ( nahipi ), Italian ( naibi ), and Spanish ( naipes ), the latter word still in common usage. Panels on the pip cards in two suits show they had a reverse ranking, a feature found in madiao , ganjifa , and old European card games like ombre , tarot , and maw . A fragment of two uncut sheets of Moorish -styled cards of a similar but plainer style
6622-475: The seventeenth century, he saw ganjifa cards often. Modern ganjifa is usually round but rectangular cards were more common during the 18th-century and from records Persian ganjifeh was always rectangular. Its circular shape must have been an Indian innovation. While Mughal ganjifa had the same suits and ranks as Safavid ganjifeh, a 10-suited deck, the Dashavatara Ganjifa, was created to appeal to Hindus in
6708-862: The seventeenth century. Some historical decks have had more than 30 suits. In countries such as India and Persia, the traditional hand-made Ganjifa cards lost market share to Western-style printed cards, which came to dominate in the 20th century. This decline has several aspects. By the 21st-century, the only place with a significant community of ganjifa makers and players is Odisha in the east of India, Mysore in Karnataka, Nirmal in Telangana, Sawantwadi in Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Kashmir, Bishnupur in West Bengal and Sheopur in Madhya Pradesh. In Odisha, they use ganjapa ,
6794-401: The subject of playing cards include: Contemporary playing cards are grouped into three broad categories based on the suits they use: French, Latin, and Germanic. Latin suits are used in the closely related Spanish and Italian formats. The Swiss-German suits are distinct enough to merit their subcategory. Excluding jokers and tarot trumps, the French 52-card deck preserves the number of cards in
6880-433: The suits use reverse ranking for their pip cards. There are many motifs for the suit pips but some include coins, clubs, jugs, and swords which resemble later Mamluk and Latin suits. Michael Dummett speculated that Mamluk cards may have descended from an earlier deck which consisted of 48 cards divided into four suits each with ten pip cards and two court cards. By the 11th century, playing cards were spreading throughout
6966-530: The sword ( spade ) of the Italian suits. In England, the French suits were eventually used, although the earliest packs circulating may have had Latin suits. This may account for why the English called the clovers "clubs" and the pikes "spades". In the late 14th century, Europeans changed the Mamluk court cards to represent European royalty and attendants. In a description from 1377, the earliest courts were originally
7052-485: The translucent material to read other people's cards or to identify cards by minor scratches or marks on their backs. Playing cards are available in a wide variety of styles, as decks may be custom-produced for competitions, casinos and magicians (sometimes in the form of trick decks ), made as promotional items, or intended as souvenirs , artistic works, educational tools, or branded accessories. Decks of cards or even single cards are also collected as
7138-574: The world record collection of 8,520 different jokers belonging to Tony de Santis of Italy. Ganjifa Ganjifa , Ganjapa or Gânjaphâ , is a card game and type of playing cards that are most associated with Persia and India. After Ganjifa cards fell out of use in Iran before the twentieth century, India became the last country to produce them. The form prevalent in Odisha is Ganjapa . Ganjifa cards are circular or rectangular, and traditionally hand-painted by artisans . The game became popular at
7224-484: Was discovered by Leo Aryeh Mayer in the Topkapı Palace , Istanbul , in 1939. It is not a complete set and is actually composed of three different packs, probably to replace missing cards. The Topkapı pack originally contained 52 cards comprising four suits: polo-sticks, coins, swords, and cups. Each suit contained ten pip cards and three court cards, called malik (king), nā'ib malik (viceroy or deputy king), and thānī nā'ib (second or under-deputy). The thānī nā'ib
7310-605: Was found in Spain and dated to the early 15th century. Export of these cards (from Cairo, Alexandria, and Damascus), ceased after the fall of the Mamluks in the 16th century. The rules to play these games are lost but they are believed to be plain trick games without trumps . Playing cards probably came to Europe from the East, specifically those used by the Mamluks in Egypt. The cards arrived first either in Italy or Spain. Historical evidence
7396-464: Was founded in 1889 to produce and distribute karuta ( かるた , from Portuguese carta , 'card') , most notably hanafuda ( 花札 , 'flower cards') . Hanafuda cards had become popular after Japan banned most forms of gambling in 1882 but largely left hanafuda untouched. Sales of hanafuda cards were popular with the yakuza -ran gaming parlors in Kyoto. Other card manufacturers had opted to leave
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