All kinds of claims have been made about the invention of playing cards. Some people think they originated with the Egyptians, others give the credit to the Arabs, or Hindus, or Chinese.

We do know that playing cards were first used for foretelling the future and were linked with religious symbols. Ancient Hindu cards, for example, had ten suits representing the ten incarnations of Vishnu, the Hindu god.

Playing cards were probably introduced into Europe during the thirteenth century. We can trace the playing cards we have today to certain cards that existed in Italy. They were called “tarots,” or picture cards, and there were 22 of them. They were used for fortune-telling or simple games.

These 22 picture cards were then combined with 56 number cards to make a deck of 78 cards. One of the tarot cards was called “it matte,” the fool, from which we get our joker. There were four suits in this deck, representing the chalice, the sword, money, and the baton. There were also four “court” cards, the king, queen, knight, and knave.

From these 56 cards of the Italian deck came the 52-card French deck. The French kept the king, queen, knave, and ten numeral cards in each of the four suits, which they gave new names—spade, heart, diamond, and club. The English adopted this deck, which is the deck we now use.

The earliest European cards were hand-painted, and too expensive for general use. With the invention of printing, it became possible for most people to own playing cards.

Early cards were either square, extremely oblong, or even round, but today they are the usual size of 89 millimeters by 63.5 or 57. Many efforts have been made to put the pictures of national heros or current events on cards, but these usually end up as novelties. The figures on American and English cards wear costumes from the time of Henry VII and Henry VIII.