History of trading card games

Also each picture card represented a different historic personality. For example, the king of diamond represented Julius Caesar and the king of clubs represented Alexander the Great. After these playing cards that we see as standard now spread through Europe they also made it to America. This was mostly thanks to Spanish and french immigrants that took their favorite games on the road with them.

Once playing cards reached, new card games started emerging, like Poker and Gin. And even now the evolution of card games continues, with new playing cards like UNO and new games are created all the time. If you want to learn more take a look at the history of card games on wikipedia or scroll down the page for brief histories of specific card games. Collecting takes being a fan to the next level, and is a great hobby to share with family and friends.

Read stories from other Upper Deck fans about how to collect , how to get started collecting NHL cards , and how to get kids collecting. The higher the price point the more content and guaranteed ratio of inserts such as rookie cards, autographed cards and jersey cards to name a few. To get a better idea of the many different brands and card products Upper Deck offers, take a look at this story submitted by a fan on how Upper Deck offers the perfect mix of products for every level of collector.

The value of a trading card is based on many factors, including the player's popularity, the rarity of the card, the brand, the condition of the card, and the overall demand that other collectors place on that card. The main thing most collectors focus on is how they feel about the card, as ultimately owner of the card decides the value of it. That is part of what makes the hobby so fun, as you determine which cards in your collection are most important to you, not a magazine, a card dealer or online auction site.

If you're getting involved in trading cards just for investment purposes, odds are long that you are going to make a continued and sustained gain on your assets. The unpredictable world of sports moves fast and furious, as players are injured, lack performance or get traded to other teams.

That being said, much can be learned about making sound investments through trading cards. Parents can help and encourage a child to start collecting by taking the time to enjoy the hobby with them. From the earliest days of colonization there are even examples of native Americans making their own decks with original suit symbols and designs, evidently having learned card games from the new inhabitants. Among American manufacturers, a leading name from the early s is Lewis I.

Cohen, who even spent four years in England, and began publishing playing cards in In he invented a machine for printing all four colours of the card faces at once, and his successful business eventually became a public company in , under the name the New York Consolidated Card Company.

This company was responsible for introducing and popularizing corner indices to the English pack, to make it easier for players to hold and recognize a poker hand by only fanning the cards slightly. Another printing company had already printed decks with indices in Saladee's Patent, printed by Samuel Hart , but it was the Consolidated Card Company that patented this design in First known as "squeezers", decks with these indices were not immediately well received.

A competing firm, Andrew Dougherty and Company initially began producing "triplicates", offering an alternative that used miniature card faces on the opposite corners of the cards. But new territory had been won, and indices eventually became standard, and today it is hard to imagine playing cards without them. One final innovation that we owe to the United States is the addition of the Jokers.

The Joker was initially referred to as "the best bower", which is terminology that originates in the popular trick-taking game of euchre, which was popular in the midth century, and refers to the highest trump card. It is an innovation from around that designated a trump card that beat both the otherwise highest ranking right bower and left bower. The word euchre may even be an early ancestor of the word "Joker".

A variation of poker around is the first recorded instance of the Joker being used as a wild card. Besides these changes, America has not contributed any permanent changes to the standard deck of cards, which by this time already enjoyed a long and storied history, and had become more and more standardized.

However the United States has become important in producing playing cards. Besides the above mentioned companies, other well-known names of printers from the late 19th century include Samuel Hart and Co, and Russell and Morgan, the latter eventually becoming today's industry giant: the United States Playing Card Company.

American manufacturers have been printing special purpose packs and highly customized decks of playing cards throughout their history, but the USPCC's Bicycle, Bee, and Tally Ho brands have become playing card icons of their own. The USPCC has absorbed many other playing card producers over more than a century of dominance, and they are considered an industry leader and printer of choice for many custom decks produced today. The true history of playing cards is a long and fascinating journey, one that has been enmeshed with many romantic interpretations over time, not all of which have a historical basis.

What will the future hold for the fate of the humble playing card, and what will be the lasting contribution of our own era be to the shape and content of a "standard" deck?

Only time will tell, but meanwhile you can enjoy a modern deck today, knowing that it has striking similarities with the playing cards of 15th century Europe, and that playing cards have been an integral part of life and leisure across the globe for more than years! Where to get them: Do you want to pick up some historic looking cards from PlayingCardDecks. Start by looking at this contemporary 40 card Spanish deck. Alternatively, check out the entire range of vintage playing cards.

About the writer : EndersGame is a well-known and highly respected reviewer of board games and playing cards. He loves card games, card magic, cardistry, and card collecting, and has reviewed several hundred boardgames and hundreds of different decks of playing cards. You can see a complete list of his game reviews here , and his playing card reviews here. He is considered an authority on playing cards and has written extensively about their design, history, and function, and has many contacts within the playing card and board game industries.

You can view his previous articles about playing cards here. In his spare time he also volunteers with local youth to teach them the art of cardistry and card magic. For years and years, my parents gave us and our grandchildren Congress playing cards with our names on them, and I very much took it for granted. Now I have taught my own grandchildren many card games and planned to do the same for them.

If you can provide any help or insight into this, I would be most appreciative. Thank you. In the end of the s a bought a weekly collection that would be offered in newspaper stands from Naipes Heraclio Fournier. Indeed a great collection. I also like to use a Tarot deck from Marseilles to play some games.

I wan to buy Italian decks now, specially the one from Treviso, my great-grandparent place of Origin. Log in Sign up. Cart 0 Check Out. The East The precise origin of playing cards continues to be the subject of debate among scholars, and even the best theories rely more on speculation than proof. Italy and Spain In the manuscript dated , our German monk friend Johannes from Switzerland mentions the appearance of playing cards and several different card games that could be played with them. Germany To establish themselves as a card-manufacturing nation in their own right, the Germans introduced their own suits to replace the Italian ones, and these new suits reflected their interest in rural life: acorns, leaves, hearts, and bells; the latter being hawk-bells and a reference to the popular rural pursuit of falconry.

England Our journey across the channel actually begins in Belgium, from where massive quantities of cards began to be exported to England, although soldiers from France may also have helped introduce playing cards to England.