Playing cards, which are used for popular casino games like poker, blackjack, and baccarat, have been around for centuries. The modern forms of cards, with royals, numbers, diamonds, spades, hearts, and clubs, was invented by the French in the late 17th century.

At the time of their invention, each of the royal cards represented a specific historical figure.
For example, the king of spades was the biblical King David, the king of clubs was Alexander
the Great, the king of diamonds was Julius Caesar, and the king of hearts was Charlemagne.
Other nations in Europe and throughout the world had their own styles of playing cards. In some parts of Germany, for example, acorns and leaves were the most common playing card symbols. However, the French use of simple shapes to differentiate cards made their version
of cards easy to mass- produce. French cards were exported all over the world, and become particularly popular among the English, who took the cards to the New World colonies which were to become the United States of America.

Americans began making their own cards in around 1800, about a quarter- century after winning their independence from England. The Americans made a series of new improvements on the European classic: they manufactured double- headed cards so that players would not have to turn cards over, varnished surfaces for durability and ease in shuffling, rounded corners that improved the cards’ longevity, and indexes which identified cards as belonging to
a particular set.

Another American invention is the Joker, which came into use around 1870. The Joker was originally called the “Best Bower,” and was used in the game of Juker; hence the evolution
of the word “joker.”