The History of Playing Cards

The early history of playing cards is rather shrouded in mystery, but what we do know is that the origin most likely stems from China, shortly after the invention of paper. We are, however going on more clues than merely the invention of paper. Early Chinese "money" cards actually consisted of "suits"; tens of myriads, myriads of strings, strings of coins and coins. Coins were "cash" and the strings of coins may have been misinterpreted as sticks in ancient drawings. It has been suggested that this form of "card game" may well have been used as currency, thereby playing two roles, while at the same time, introducing the concept of gambling. The term "losing your hand" may well have been the ancient's first encounter with today's term; "losing your shirt" in gambling.

With all of this in mind, it is not difficult to imagine the next step in entertainment being the invention of mahjong tiles and dominos, as we know they originated in ancient Chinese culture. How the exciting game of cards spread from China through Europe is yet another mystery. Though there is much debate, cards most likely came to Europe, England specifically, by way of the Mamelukes of Egypt in the later part of the 1300's. These cards also contained four suits and were in a 52 card deck, much like today's cards. The suits consisted of Swords, Cups, Coins and Polo Sticks. Each suit contained ten "spot" cards or numbered cards that had the number of symbols on each card. For example, the 9 of Swords would have nine Swords on the face.

The first complete deck of Mameluke playing cards was discovered by L.A. Mayer in 1939 while visiting the Topkapi Sarayi Museum in Istanbul. That particular deck was not produced before 1400 and the rest, as they say, is history.