The History of Playing Cards

[@TheGeneralistPapers]

Big shoutout to Mr. Beat ( kzbin.info ) for lending his voice to this video!!

[@bethbartlett5692]

Diamond ♦️ Did they spell it Diomand?

[@darreljones8645]

For those of you who don't recognize the book of Judith, it's only considered part of the Bible if you're Catholic or Orthodox. Protestants usually don't include it in their Bible, or only do so as part of the Apocrypha.

[@AnaIvanovic4ever]

Or the Ethiopian Church! All books are part of the Canon there

[@teogonzalez7957]

@@AnaIvanovic4evereven the childhood gospels?

[@AnaIvanovic4ever]

@@teogonzalez7957 I'm not sure but I think not. They were written pretty late in Europe right? But all late Jewish books written during Persian and Selucid times like Enoch, Maccabies etc are canonical.

[@brutusthebear9050]

​@AnaIvanovic4ever Technically the Coptic Church is Oriental Orthodox

[@IONATVS]

⁠@@AnaIvanovic4everMy Understanding is the Ethiopian Canon doesn’t include the Catholic/Orthodox books of Maccabees, preferring their own, completely different accounts of the same events, recorded originally in Ge’ez. But otherwise they include all the books from the Greek Septuagint/Latin Vulgate, including the ones the Orthodox and Catholics no longer consider canon and a bunch of other minor books. But yeah, there’s SO many other ancient books that didn’t make it into ANY canon, even the Ethiopian…usually for good reason.

[@frederikspudnik1792]

It's also quits possible that "spades" came from "spade" (spah-deh) in italian, which means "sword" And spades does correspond to the suit of swords

[@randallross420]

I think it came from David Spade, Oscar winning actor and inventor of comedy.

[@olleani]

The three suits of the Chinese money cards makes me think they're the inspiration to the Mahjong suits. Which also said to represent coins, string of coins and myriad of coins equating to circles, bamboo and character suits respectively.

[@IONATVS]

They are indeed. Mahjong is the direct local descendant of the money cards, and their evolution is why we know so much about the money cards despite paper playing cards of that original style not surviving to the modern day

[@benselander1482]

Joker cards are also useful for replacing lost cards; you can just write the specs of whatever card is missing somewhere on the joker card.

[@caseysmith544]

Joker is used in modern games like Golf or Hand and Foot where in one you need to have 4 decks, 3 for under 4 players for golf then one more deck for number of players on Hand and Foot game. They are used as wild cards similar to some games of casual Poker where jokers are left in the deck.

[@IONATVS]

Japanese Hanafuda cards actually don’t descend directly from Chinese money cards-though their local versions of Mahjong do-They descend from komatsufuda, local copies of Portuguese playing cards imported at the end of the Sengoku Jidai. They were banned under the Tokugawa shogunate, hence their radical redesign from 4 suits of 12 cards (1 thru 9, Female Knave, Knight, King) each to 12 suits of 4 cards each, with no foreign or gambling-related symbolism to avoid the ban.

[@nullifye7816]

There's also a related development of the Portuguese cards called I think "Unsun Karuta" or similar (Karuta=card). They survived the Tokugawa ban in some remote village, having 5 suits of 15 cards each, and they look badass as fuck. Looking at the five face cards, they seem to be Ashigaru, Bushi, Lady, Daimyo, Sage, Dragon. Imagine winning poker with a hand of five-of-a-kind Dragons...

[@iguficonquisterannoilmondo3973]

Here in Italy we use both Italian and French suits. We use the Italian ones to play games that are typically Italian, which require a 40 cards deck (like Scopa and Briscola), and we use the French ones to play internatinal games. Also, we have some games that are Italian, but still use a French deck, like Ramino and Burraco. Usually in this games we do not use just a 52 cards deck, instead we use two of them and combine them together. Also we use the Jokers in this games and they act as a wild card. Basically, these Franch/Italian games require a 108 cards deck, which is pretty hard to shuffle, but you get used to it.

[@ttg_dav3418]

I'm italian and didn't know there were games that required both the Italian and the french cards😅😅

[@yetanotherjohn]

Fascinating! ALSO: face cards are topsy-turvy so they can't be used for fortune telling. Because sorcery is way worse than gambling, amiright? Oh AND: after a night of hard use, late-renaissance cards were basically trash. But as they had blank, white backs, they were prefect for writing brief notes on, especially a name and address, they later became calling cards, and then business cards.

[@majkus]

The game Canasta, which for a time rivaled Bridge in popularity in the U.S., used a 108-card pack, two 52-card decks with two jokers each, shuffled together. It is probably the reason that bridge-sized playing cards are still sold with two jokers. 🃏🃏

[@RobertShaw-z7b]

A king and queen walk into a bar.The bartender say's "Sorry but you're not 21."

[@RickJaeger]

The idiot they came in with says, "Hit me."

[@JohnyPaprikas]

-_-

[@thehearingaid]

They'd be legal to drink in most other places though ;)

[@nirutivan9811]

In Switzerland (at least in the north-eastern parts) we often use different cards. They are a bit similar to the German ones you explained in the video, as we also use the bell and the acorn, but instead of hearts and Leaves we use roses and shields. The standard deck of our cards has 36 cards: 6, 7, 8, 9, Banner (which basically functions as the 10), Under (which means subordinate and is equivalent to the Jack), Ober (which means something like lord and replaces the queen), König (the King) and Ass (yeah, that‘s how we call the ace😅).

[@mRahman92]

The Ass of Asses

[@Doomwarden13]

36 cards would certainly make the math easy.

[@mRahman92]

@Doomwarden13 and easier to run out of cards.

[@jito7377]

Skatdecks are from Switzerland?

[@nirutivan9811]

@@jito7377 I think Skat is from Germany and I think it only has 32. The most traditional game played with our Swiss cards is called „Jass“

[@TheMrMe1]

A lot of history missing - no mention of the trumps (tarots) of tarot deck (which probably inspired the jokers), no mention of how jacks and knights used to be used simultaneously.... All in all, a pretty good video though

[@littlehorn0063]

Doubt that the major arcana actually inspired jokers. Sure, maybe the design, but for a very long time there was no jokers in most card games. There's a family of card games using the tarot cards, the tarok games. They are very old games of european origin. They have special rules for The Fool card, so you could say that it was the first joker. But for the rest of the games? Karnoffel didn't use them, Piquet doesn't, Skat doesn't, Whist doesn't. Euchre was one of the first modern games to use them, being designated as the second-highest and highest cards of the trump suit. If anything, the major arcana inspired the trump suits in modern games! Before Whist (that's around 17th century I believe?), there was no trumps in most card games. Again, only Tarok had it. And it was the major arcana that was trump! One evidence of that being the case is the card game Piquet, created during the lifetime (maybe a little more) of Jeanne d'Arc, 15th century. No trumps there, all suits equal. And a bit of personal opinion: Piquet is a difficult game, hard to do the hand estimations there. Spades, Bezique or Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde are better suited for 2 player experience.

[@spiritbond8]

thanks for your vague bullsh*

[@jankxyard]

Here is Slovakia, we still use the old German cards for certain games, but we call the color decks, in rough translation: heart = redders (červeň) leaf = greeners (zeleň) acorn the same (žaluď) bells = balls (guľa) The most common game we play with these cards is called "Prší", which can be translated to "It's raining". I know, weird. Other names for this particular game are either "Priest" or "Pharaoh", because these are "Farár" or "Faraón" in Slovak, so they sound similar. Why do we have such weird names for this game? I have no idea. The game has nothing in its rules resembling a rain or priest or pharaoh. I've not met a single person here who haven't played this game many times. Everyone here knows this game and I bet it's the same in Czechia and other neighbouring countries.

[@Spartan117xxxxxx]

This makes me wonder who came up with this naming scheme first, whether the czechs or the slovaks, as in Czechia, the names are similar, but not the same. The names of the colors are pluralized, I do not ever remember hearing them in singular. Heart = The Reds "červený" Leaf = The greens "zelený" Acorn = Acorns "žaludy" Ball = Balls, but archaic "kule" It seems to me that clearly one influenced the other, but who came up with it first, I am unaware.

[@ΠαναγιωτηςΔεμεστιχας-μ6η]

Really interesting video! We in Greece call those symbols with some inspiration from the past. We have swords for clubs, goblets or cups for hearts, we use spade and for the diamonds we use the french carreau refering to its diamond shape.

[@tonimuellerDD]

German 52 card decks actually have 3 jokers, and most German games also use them. So, no throwing away here 😊 The old German suits (acorn etc.) are also still very common esp. in the south and the east. They are typically used for a 32 cards deck starting at 7 to play THE German pub card game called Skat (a bit like bridge, but for 3 players).

[@littlehorn0063]

I wouldn't say that Skat is at least somewhat similar to Bridge. The only things similar is the team aspect (even though it's temporary truces) and "trading" at the start. It's closer to Preferance than anything, and even then it's loosely similar. Skat is very unique!

[@Stevie-J]

I've never seen jokers get thrown away, so I found it odd when he said that. Usually they are just left in the box because they can be used as replacements for damaged or missing cards

[@helbitkelbit1790]

High , Low , Jack , Joker , Joker , Game......

[@DrIngo1980]

I must be the oddball out here, cause I never encountered a 52 card deck in Germany. But then again, I almost exclusively played Doppelkopf/Schafskopf back in the day. Oh well.

[@bobaboey]

There are 4 Seasons in a year. The 12 Court cards (4 Kings, 4 Queens, 4 Jacks) represent the 12 Months in a year. The 13 Values (Ace through to King) in each suit equate to the 13 Lunar cycles in a year. There are 52 cards in a full pack of playing cards (excluding jokers) - There are 52 weeks in a year

[@rustyswinehammer9156]

Yeah I remember that old country western song too.

[@MemphiStig]

6:35 diomands? is that a typo or ye olde spelling? However, Charlemagne is definitely misspelled "Charlamange." Good video. I didn't know about the face card names. I wonder if the Chinese myriads represented or were named after specific people too.

[@metallsnubben]

Charlemange is when he was having dinner

[@MemphiStig]

@@metallsnubben lmao I was afraid he might have a skin condition

[@TheGeneralistPapers]

No ye olde spellings here. Just misspellings. I swear there are always misspellings in my videos, no matter how many times I check haha

[@EdricHsu]

I wonder if the Joker cards were inspired or derived from the Fool card from Tarot decks? Also if they were meant to add on to the other card designs to fill up a whole sheet of card stock for economy of printing and trimming purposes?

[@lucasrinaldi9909]

Yes.

[@andychap6283]

Always a highlight in my feed to see an upload from this channel. Love these interesting obscure topics

[@ttg_dav3418]

So u love vsauce

[@johngraham8893]

No explanation about the ACE card?

[@Reginald_Ritmo]

It really is just a fancy name for the number one

[@jackdrew518]

​@Reginald_Ritmo So basically, it was the lowest card, until the French revolution. They couldn't stand the fact that the king was the highest card, so they turned the ace into the top card. In solitaire however, ace yet remains the lowest card, and perhaps in certain other games too

[@Larry660]

9:50: I have also seen Jokers used (with appropriate marks on the face) as replacements for lost or destroyed cards, or as wild cards in Poker.

[@MonsieurLeCoq]

Discovered your channel back when you released your coat of arms video. Wanted to see what happened in the meantime and must say I love what you do :)

[@robertholt6444]

I always throw the Joker cards away. The next deck I get I'll keep them and learn to play old maid. I think Jokers are in that game too.

[@litigioussociety4249]

Most people use them for two things: wild cards in poker and similar games, and replacement cards by writing the missing or damaged card on it.

[@metallsnubben]

@@litigioussociety4249 In Swedish it's pretty common to use the word joker for anything that would be called a "wild card" in English actually, including both literal cards in games (whether or not it's a classic card deck) and wild cards in sports (like a team that qualifies in a "lucky loser" way or getting a perfect score or whatever could be called a "jokerlag")

[@Noah-ry5qj]

The way we play old maid is simply taking 3 queens out, the remaining being the "old maid". Much more flavorful that way 😁

[@rogersnick17]

Same

[@dubstepXpower]

Arnt they in canasta?

[@kalinkavelinova2529]

Cards have their own history! In four color decks Clubs are verdant colored,Hearts are crimson and Diamonds are marigold

[@1337w0n]

Chalices, Scimitars, Coins, Polo sticks Me, who's familiar with Tarrot: _Oh._

[@chandupadissanayaka9964]

This channel is Generally underrated. Great video though.

[@Ggdivhjkjl]

The purpose of the jokers is to protect the deck by putting one at each end. That's why a standard French deck has 52 cards, not 54.

[@WildVoltorb]

I thought it was a replacement for cards you eventually lose

[@Austin-gj7zj]

?? That's just your opinion man.

[@eldurazno5761]

​@WildVoltorb there's a lot of reasons for joker cards, theres actually a lot of games that use joker but they're mostly solitair games (solitair is a style of game that means single player it is not one specific game, if before this you thought it was just one game you're probably thinking of Klondike solitair)

[@marvinpineda8693]

Perhaps at some time it was used as a calendar reference. If fifty-two cards to a deck and fifty-two weeks to a year, there must be some way to make it work out to find the date, right? - Here’s how. You have to first remember this order of suits: Spade, Diamond, Club, Heart. Knowing this order will note each week of the month as Week-1, Week-2, Week-3, and Week-4. So, for January 1st, it would strictly be the Ace of Spades, and the same card will be used to note the top of the first week in the order of weeks following a second card that marks the day(not weekday) of that week. So by placing a four of any suit, you mark yourself on a picture frame that it is the “fourth day of the first week” of January being January 4th. This methodology works only by using up to the number 7 card. Because by following the order, on the 8th you will replace the initial week card to the Ace of Diamonds, and it represents the 8th of January by its sole self. You then use the cards 2-7 to mark the day of the days of week as they progress through. You have to note that when changing the Week card in following this order, the cards themselves to the number of that month will only represent the 1st, the 8th, the 15th, and the 22nd. The second card, being any suit 2-7, represents the numbered day within that week. When you get to the end of the week, you can only get to a maximum of the 28th. After that, respective of the same order reveals a pattern where you can use the Kings for the 29th, 30th, and 31st. - So, a Four of Hearts with a King of Diamonds means it would be the 30th of April. And then the following day becomes the Five of Spades, noting the first of May. There’s been a third card adding to the collective of two cards during this period. Another set of 1-7 cards used to represent the day of the week. Not much of this has been mentioned, but there’s speculation as to what day begins the day of the week: M-1, T-2, W-3, Th-4, F-5, Sa-6, Su-7. There’s nothing stopping you from setting apart a specific suit for noting this function from the aforementioned perspective. Perhaps you use a picture frame and stick the second card behind the Week Counter card, and use a Joker in front of the weekday card. This is what I found that works.

[@kalinkavelinova2529]

Mahjong has 34 tiles and is the oldest known deck 3 suits:Coins,Sticks and Myriads(1-9) Special tiles: Directions:NEWS Dragons:Red,Green,White Notes: The 3,5,6,7 and 9 of coins have red circles The 1 of sticks has a bird on it The 8 of sticks has a M shape The tiles have kanji on them: Man(Myriad suit) Chuu(Red dragon) Tozainanboku(Directions): W(Nishi) E(Higashi) N(Kita) S(Minami)

[@patrickdaniel4953]

I love your channel !! great documentary on the playing cards !!

[@neofoxboi]

The Jokers also simplify printing, as a deck of 54 can easily be made on a 9x6 grid

[@kalinkavelinova2529]

A card deck with Barbie characters Queen of hearts,diams:Barbie Jack of hearts,diams:Ken Queen of spades,clubs:Teresa Jack of spades,clubs:Ryan Minor suits:Formal suit Major suits:Summer

[@niklasbrandt7415]

Where did you find the information on the specific Kings and Queens? I had heard about this before, but have not been able to verify it. I'd be very curious to see a reputable source for that.

[@JosephOfLosAngeles23]

I found the info on the Wikipedia page for those playing cards, but I don’t think it’s very reliable

[@Turo185]

It does not sound reliable to me, at all. No info given about who decided on the figures of history or why.

[@Pio2001]

These names are written on all french decks. Looking in the online archives on the french national library, I can see a deck from 1740 with these names already on the cards, but another deck from 1664 has different names on it (Helene as queen of diamonds, Cyrus as king of diamonds...)

[@niklasbrandt7415]

@@Pio2001 Thank you so much! Out of curiosity, is that on modern cards as well? Whilst Germany generally uses french style decks, I have never seen that here.

[@Pio2001]

@@niklasbrandt7415 Yes, they are written in small characters. You can see a standard french deck in the french wikipedia, article "Jeu de cartes français" : fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeu_de_cartes_fran%C3%A7ais All decks look like this. We had a dozen of them in my grandparents house, used to play various games. The first time I saw an english deck I was like "what the heck are these ?... and why is it J, Q and K instead of V, D and R ???"

[@Faustobellissimo]

Halk-bell??? It's hawk-bell...

[@Onmydt]

My maternal family has always played 500 rum, which is a branch off Gin Rummy, the Jokers are wild. A lot of card games that my family plays generally include jokers, with most games including them as wilds and a few being negative cards.

[@majkus]

The analogy between modern face cards and US paper currency is amusing, but strained, and historically wrong. US paper currency did not have corner numerals as a general rule, and had pictures of eagles, Liberty figures, and even buffaloes more often than they portrayed Presidents ("royalty")-and even now, figures such as Alexander Hamilton still are seen (Harriet Tubman probably won't happen in the present political climate). Conversely, corner indices for playing cards was an invention of the mid nineteenth century, and took a while to become universal.

[@kirilvelinov7774]

Evolution of card suits Three suits(China) Coins,Wands,Myriads The Myriads suit was abandoned Four suits(Italy) Coins split with Cups Wands split with Swords Updated(Germany) Coins turned into Bells Wands turned into Acorns Swords turned into Shields Cups turned into Roses Later Roses became Hearts and Shields became Leaves Current suits(UK) Spades,Hearts,Clovers and Diams Four color variation Black,Red,Aqua blue,Yellow Extra suit(2020s):Gold stars(green in four color deck)

[@josepha.michael2859]

Where do you have more information about sponsoring videos?

[@moumantai6337]

At some point back then, I remember jokers come in four in a deck, now 2 is the standard

[@ThePhiloctopus]

My Piatnik Star Club decks come with 3 jokers. I wish 4 was standard, they are useful it heaps of games

[@JOCoStudio1]

They still use 4 in Denmark, and perhaps some other countries.

[@legithopecrew]

Love your vids, always happy to see another one pop up, thanks!

[@Shoyrou]

In Portugal we call hearts, diamonds, spades and clubs the copas, ouros, espadas and paus, which can be translated to cups, golds, swords and batons. Yet we use the french symbols. Suddenly the names make total sense!

[@recino2]

Slight correction: the knight was mounted, while the king was enthroned. The early sets had page, kinight, and king, with queen coming in later.

[@jpdlpokedigi10]

in portugal we call hearts copas (cups), spades espadas (swords), diamonds ouros (golds) and clubs paus (sticks)

[@jacktribble5253]

I collect rare decks as a compulsive shopping outlet. I have a deck in the house.

[@misternebojsa]

in serbia we say hearths (same),clubs are detelina (clover),spades are leafs and diamonds are squeres :D

[@knightrider585]

In my head I had always assumed Joker cards were included as emergency spare cards to replace missing cards. Euchre doesn't use a full 52-card deck anyway so you can always use one of the twos as a joker.

[@Blaisofficial]

6:30 In french they actually stayed the same suits (Cœur/Hearts, Treffle/clovers, Pique/pikes and careaux/tiles)

[@Bico-420]

interesting! Knave reminds me of the old German word for boy: Knabe

[@magistrumartium]

Far stranger than I imagined. Interesting. Thanks!

[@dejavu666wampas9]

Didn’t read all the comments, but has anyone mentioned Tex Ritter’s song, The Deck of Cards?

[@hansolowe19]

I like this channel. Keep it up. 👍

[@jam777]

Very good video. Where I can download or buy these beautiful siits of different playing cards of world. Give the link in the comments, if you don't mind

[@craz2580]

I just wanted to mention that the symbols that we still use in italy are not for a set of cards used in poker, but a descendent of tarots that we use for games such as Briscola

[@KristoffDiscover]

Great video. Thanks!

[@josuesepulveda6850]

This was very interesting,good video.

[@KingAlobar21]

Keep your Jokers. Never break up a complete deck.

[@LendriMujina]

They can be really annoying because most games' rules don't take them into account. But keeping them in there to remove at the very least is a good way to make sure nobody forgets to shuffle.

[@kujmagic]

Interesting and informative

[@daniel06498]

Best video to watch instead of going to sleep

[@Olkv3D]

4 Suits/4 Seasons 13 Faces/13 Months 52 Cards/52 Weeks

[@thomassantomartino7337]

Your video was very interesting. I’m most used to the Tarot being transformed into playing cards over time. I didn’t know that each card in the playing card court related to a historical figure.

[@TheRazorback5]

I subscribed as soon as I heard Mr. Beat in the intro

[@prashantpandya1073]

The spade symbol comes from Canada!!!😊😁😊 I have seen a couple of trees near my place which are similar in looks with the spade symbol!!!

[@djalexander968]

I've been on KZbin too long, I got the videos title perfect in searching for something just like this 😂

[@dilley_esq]

Really enjoyed this one! New subscriber. 🎉

[@TuttleScott]

we always used joker cards to replace missing or damaged cards.

[@joanneboag5993]

Interesting video. Jsyk, where the four modern suits are described, the word "diamond" is misspelled as "diomond"! 🙃

[@bigpumpfitness3734]

The intro is how it went down with me.

[@urielsoto247]

It's so amazing!

[@rilagin1]

Was the opening a parody of red vs blues opening?

[@ВоронМаусы]

What are batons exactly and what are they used fo? Couldn't find

[@teethpaste8568]

6:37 u accidentally wrote diomand

[@alpacamale2909]

very compact video

[@wolfchanel2879]

Im from Michigan where Euchre is super common and I dont know of any variation with jokers in it

[@Doodle1776]

I have a reproduction of 16th century French playing cards. They are fun to play with.

[@prashantpandya1073]

In India jokers are used as wild cards!!! But, it depends on the players' discretion.

[@wkusam123]

Where did the aces come from?

[@elianenetto634]

Hi this is a very educational video and lika i said *very educational*

[@thehearingaid]

nice topic that was an instant click. Side note that doesn't really matter - Hearing Sa-racen instead of sara-cen threw me but then I don;t actually know how it's meant to be pronounced. But that's how we pronounce it for sports teams.

[@meda_mo]

i feel like if they pit athena, godess of war, and a knight who fought alongside joan of arc, they could've joan of arc as one of the queens. i know theres not realky anything i can do about it but i feel like its a but of a missed opportunity😭😭

[@dinguzzy]

The joker is used as a spare if you loose a card you write on the joker the symbol and color of the lost card and play with it

[@Pppppppppppppppppppppppppppppa]

Why are the J♡ and J♤ one eyed. And moustached whilst the other 2 aren't? I could take a guess at why the K◇ who supposedly represents julius caesar, which is the only one eyed king is because he was stabbed in the back and is watching behind him

[@tommarquette9706]

One eyed jacks are in profiles. Your looked at the back of each jack with their head turned. Check out old french cards.

[@travismcgrath6917]

I always thought the jokers were there like extra buttons on a shirt, should you lose a card you could sub it with a joker

[@Origen17]

6:37... Diamonds misspelled

[@KingsleyGallagher]

Great video

[@DvdRBoss]

Very interesting

[@sarabrockett6202]

There is a mystery map of the cards it gives every birthday a. Card and tells your personality and tells the future its Accurate

[@ape-in-a-tree9701]

in dutch clubs are still clovers and diamonds are windows

[@californiaowl1748]

Any stories or tidbits about “suicide kings” or “one eyed jacks”..?

[@fidalf99]

How does tarot play (hah) into it?

[@rafaveggi]

Hey, what about the Aces?!

[@ShawnRavenfire]

I always considered the jokers to be wildcards.

[@zarfling]

Would you like to collaborate on an all-ages 32-page picture book about this topic? Much of the content would be the same with a bit more room to discuss the kings, queens, and knaves. I can provide my email here if you’d like to discuss further. Thanks, Travis

[@thogarrathikarthik2006]

First comment: This is a great explanation

[@eduardmorell]

Thats awesome

[@SethSinclair]

I know Mr beat’s voice anywhere

[@abraxasadams8709]

Friendly note: At 1:35 the word is pronounced SAR-a-san not sar-AH-san.

[@evanquinn6092]

Is that Mr beat in the beginning

[@thomasryan9639]

You can also use the joker to play Euchre.

[@akashpanda1729]

Why is the Ace of Spades printed differently from other Aces?

[@littlehorn0063]

So that the printing house, those who made the cards, could be identified without the deck of cards. Tradition stems back to 18th century England. It's mostly a western thing, it seems, as most european card packs have Ace of Spades same as all other aces

[@Serjohn]

In Greece they call hearts cups