Types of playing card decks: the real guide to systems

Let's start by taking the heat off a wrong idea: when someone says "a deck of cards" they don't refer to a universal object, they refer to the one they know. In Spain, the Spanish deck. In the UK or the US, the poker one. In Bavaria, one with acorns and bells that would seem extraterrestrial to you. There is no one deck; there are card systems, each with its suits, its number of cards and its games. And within each system there are patterns (drawing styles) that confuse even veteran hobbyists. This is the distinction almost nobody explains well and that, once you understand it, lets you read any deck in the world as if it had subtitles.

I'll tell it with criteria and no filler: which families exist, where they came from, how many cards each one has, what is played with it, and —at the end— which to buy according to what you really want to do.

The real map: four families and a case apart

All European playing cards have a common root —they enter through the south of Europe from the Islamic world around 1370— and branch out by suits:

• Latin system: cups, coins, swords, clubs. Spanish, Italian and Portuguese variants. The oldest in Europe.
• Germanic system: hearts, bells, leaves, acorns. The oldest to standardize (~1450).
• Swiss system: acorns, shields, roses, bells. A Germanic relative with its own suits.
• French system: hearts, diamonds, clubs, spades. A simplification of the Germanic one (~1480). Today, the world dominant.
• Tarot: not a fifth suit system, but a different structure (Latin or French suits plus a row of trumps and the Fool). A case apart for its architecture.

The "special decks" (gaff, premium, regional) are not a family: they are variations built on one of these systems, almost always the French one.

1. Latin system: the Spanish deck (and the Italian one)

The oldest in Europe, adopted from the Mamluk world in the 14th century. Suits: coins, cups, swords and clubs. It has no Queen —it never had one in the classic pattern—, which is a first-rate genealogical clue.

Spanish deck

• Cards: 40 (1–7 plus Knave, Knight and King per suit) or 48 (adding 8 and 9). Some games add one or two jokers.
• Figures: Knave (10/female or page depending on the pattern), Knight and King. Three figures, no Queen.
• Pintas: the cuts in the frame of the card that indicate the suit at a glance without spreading the hand —1 cut=coins, 2=cups, 3=swords, 0=clubs, according to the Castilian pattern—. It is the Latin solution to the problem the French one solved with indices.
• Patterns: Castilian (the most common in Spain), Catalan (full-body figures, straight swords), and those exported to Spanish America.
• Games: mus, tute, brisca, chinchón, escoba, guiñote, cuarenta.

The history and the patterns, in detail, in the history of the Spanish deck.

Italian deck

The same Latin system, but with curved swords and clubs often intertwined, and strong regional variation: Neapolitan, Piacentine, Sicilian, Tuscan, Bergamasque, Trevisan patterns… It usually has 40 cards. Games: Scopa, Briscola, Tressette.

2. Germanic system: German deck

One of the oldest systems, standardized around 1450, long before the French one. Suits: hearts (Herz), bells (Schellen), leaves (Laub/Grün) and acorns (Eichel).

• Cards: typically 32 or 36 (the southern patterns add the 6; some, the "Daus", equivalent to the Ace, with a high value).
• Figures: König (King), Ober (upper figure) and Unter (lower figure). No Queen: it was eliminated in the 16th century. Ober and Unter are distinguished by where the suit symbol appears: top=Ober, bottom=Unter. It's the trick to identifying them without knowing German.
• Patterns: Bavarian, Franconian, Salzburg, Saxon, Prussian and the Tell pattern (with William Tell scenes, popular in Central Europe and Hungary).
• Games: Skat, Schafkopf, Doppelkopf, Watten, Gaigel, Binokel. (Skat is also played with French suits depending on the region.)

3. Swiss system: the Jass deck

A Germanic relative with its own suits: acorns (Eichel), shields (Schilten), roses (Rosen) and bells (Schellen). Standardized around 1450, it is used above all in German-speaking Switzerland for Jass, almost a national sport. It usually has 36 cards; figures König, Ober and Under (no Queen, like the German one). It is the proof that one and the same trunk —the Germanic— could give two different suit games depending on the valley.

4. French system: the poker deck (wrongly called "English")

It arises around 1480 as an industrial simplification of the Germanic system —flat silhouettes in two inks, cheap to stamp with a stencil— in the Rouen workshops. Today it is the most widespread deck on the planet. Suits: hearts, diamonds, clubs and spades in red and black.

• Cards: 52 (4 suits × 13: 2–10, J, Q, K, A) plus 1–2 jokers. Common reductions: 32 (Skat, Belote, Piquet), 24 (Euchre), 40/48 depending on the game.
• Figures: Jack, Queen and King. The presence of the Queen is a French identity mark.
• The Ace of Spades is ornamented through the inheritance of the old British stamp duty (1711–1960): a fiscal fossil turned into a brand.
• Corner indices: a 19th-century invention that allowed fanning and holding the hand with a single hand; the key to its success in poker and bridge.
• Games: poker, blackjack, bridge, solitaires, canasta, and almost all modern casino.

For its four suits —real origin, colors, hierarchy and the estate myth dismantled— you have the article dedicated to the poker deck suits, and the history of the poker deck for the full journey. To buy, the poker decks category.

5. Tarot: it was born to play, not to divine

Here comes the second myth worth burying (after the estate one): the tarot was not invented to read fortunes. It was created in 15th-century Italy (Milan, Ferrara, Florence, Bologna, between 1440 and 1450) as a trick-taking deck: the carte da trionfi, the "triumphs" that give the trumps their name. The divinatory use is much later: there is no evidence of significant tarot cartomancy until the end of the 18th century (an anonymous manuscript on the Tarocco Bolognese around 1750; the popularization with Court de Gébelin in 1781 and Etteilla from the 1780s, who creates around 1789 the first specific deck for divination).

• Structure (78 cards): 56 "minor arcana" in four suits with four court figures (King, Queen, Knight and Knave/Page), plus 22 "major arcana": 21 numbered trumps + the Fool with no number (the conceptual relative of the joker).
• Game tarot: the Tarot Nouveau (French suits, genre scenes, used in the modern French tarot since ~1900) versus the Tarot de Marseille pattern (Latin suits), today more used by cartomancers but originally for play too.
• Cartomantic tarot: decks like the Rider–Waite–Smith (1909) or Marseille used for symbolic reading. It is an esoteric layer of ~240 years on a deck of ~580: legitimate as a cultural practice, but it is not the origin of the tarot.
• Living tarocchi: in Italy and France it is still played —Bolognese Tarocchino, French Tarot, Austrian Königrufen (Tarock)—. It is not a relic: it is a living trick-taking game.

6. Special decks (variations, not a system)

Gaff / trick (for magic)

Almost always built on the French system, but with gimmick cards: double faces, double backs, blank cards, badly cut (stripper), Svengali, Brainwave, marked, forced indices… They allow impossible effects with minimal manipulation: the deck does the work. If it interests you, card magic.

Premium and design

Standard 52-card decks but with designer illustration, high-end paper and finishes (gilded gold/silver edges, foiling, metallic inks, die-cutting). Printed at reference presses (USPCC, Cartamundi, Legends, Expert Playing Card Co.), many in a limited and numbered edition. Look at our premium decks and, for investment pieces, the collecting ones.

Regional and themed

Local patterns and commemorative decks. The classic structure of the base system, with its own visual identity. Useful for collecting by theme.

Edge cases that break the schemes (and are the most fun)

When you think you have the map clear, decks appear that laugh at the categories. It's worth knowing them because they are exactly the ones most asked about in a shop:

• The Aluette deck: Latin system (Spanish suits), but used on the French Atlantic coast for a game —Luette— with a system of signals and bluffs between partners. The same cards as a Spanish one, a completely different game.
• Cego: a game tarot with French suits played in the German Black Forest. Tarot, but neither Italian nor divinatory.
• Pinochle: a double 48-card French deck (two copies of 9-A in each suit). The French system, "weird" card counting on purpose.
• Japanese Hanafuda: 48 cards, twelve "suits" that are months/flowers. It does not derive from the European trunk but arrived through 16th-century Portuguese contact (the karuta): a distant cousin of the Latin system that evolved on its own.
• The 54+ decks with Austrian Tarock trumps: 54 cards, French suits and 22 numbered trumps with scenes, very much alive in Austria and Hungary.

The honest lesson: the system map is a guide, not a cage. There are decks that live on the border, and they almost always hide the most interesting games.

How to identify an old deck in 20 seconds

A practical method I use and that almost always works, in order:

1. Count the suits and look at the drawing: coins/cups/swords/clubs? Latin. hearts/diamonds/clubs/spades? French. acorns/leaves/bells? Germanic. shields/roses? Swiss.
2. Look for the Queen: if there is no Queen and there are three figures, it's Latin or Germanic; if there is a Queen, French or tarot.
3. Count the deck: 40/48 → Spanish; 52 → French; 32/36 → Germanic/Swiss; 78 → tarot.
4. Look at the corners: indices (number+suit)? Modern French. pintas (cuts in the frame)? Spanish. nothing? Probably pre-19th century or a regional pattern with no indices.
5. Check the Ace of Spades / the box: a baroque Ace of Spades with a coat of arms points to British influence; text in German with "Skat" or "Schafkopf", to a German deck.

With these five steps you classify almost any deck without knowing the language of the box or the printing date.

System vs pattern: the distinction almost nobody makes

This is the point that separates the hobbyist from the one who knows. System = which suits there are (Latin, French, Germanic…). Pattern = the specific drawing style within that system. Two decks can be the same system and look completely different:

• The French system, the English pattern (Goodall/USPCC, the global one), the French/Parisian pattern (figures with their own names, Tarot Nouveau), the Belgian-Genoese pattern, the Russian pattern…
• The Latin system, the Castilian vs Catalan pattern in Spain; Neapolitan vs Piacentine in Italy.
• The Germanic system, the Bavarian vs Franconian vs Tell pattern.

"English deck" is not a different system from the French one: it is a pattern of the French system. Whoever says "I have an English deck and a French one, they are different systems" is confusing system with pattern. Now you won't fall for that.

Who has a Queen and who doesn't? The genealogical clue

If you have an old deck and don't understand the language of the box, look at the figures: they tell you the family almost without fail.

• Latin (Spanish/Italian): three male figures —Knave, Knight, King—. There was never a Queen in the classic pattern.
• French: Jack, Queen and King. The systematic Queen betrays the French system.
• Germanic: König, Ober and Unter, no Queen (eliminated in the 16th c.). Ober/Unter are distinguished by the position of the suit symbol.
• Swiss: König, Ober and Under, no Queen (like the German one).
• Tarot: four figures —King, Queen, Knight and Knave/Page—. The most complete court, and the only one with a Knight in addition to a Queen.

Materials and manufacture: what does affect daily use

The system tells you the "language" of the deck; the material tells you how it behaves in your hand:

• Cardstock with a finish (air-cushion, linen, embossing): a micro-relief that reduces friction and improves dealing. The quality standard in play, magic and cardistry.
• 100% plastic (PVC/PET): more expensive and durable, they resist bending, liquids and moisture; usual in bridge clubs and casinos. Worse "snap" for flourishes.
• Economical cardboard: cheap, it "sticks", softens and deteriorates soon. Only for very occasional use or games with children.

One and the same system —the French one, for example— spans from a supermarket deck to a premium edition from a reference press. That is why, besides choosing a system, you have to choose quality: I develop it in which deck of cards to buy, and you see it in the premium decks.

Sizes: poker vs bridge (and why it matters)

• Poker size (~63x88 mm): the standard for table play, magic and cardistry. The most versatile; if in doubt, this one.
• Bridge size (~57x88 mm): narrower, designed to hold many cards in a fan (bridge, canasta). For magic and flourishes it is almost never advisable.

For cardistry, size and finish are critical: the paper needs "snap" and the back, symmetry. You see it in the cardistry section.

Summary table of systems

System	Suits	Typical cards	Figures	Queen?	Games / use
Latin — Spanish	Coins, cups, swords, clubs	40 or 48	Knave, Knight, King	No	Mus, tute, brisca, guiñote
Latin — Italian	Coins, cups, swords, clubs	40	Fante, Cavallo, Re	No	Scopa, Briscola, Tressette
French — poker/English	Hearts, diamonds, clubs, spades	52 (+1–2 jokers); 32 reduced	Jack, Queen, King	Yes	Poker, bridge, blackjack, casino
Germanic — German	Hearts, bells, leaves, acorns	32 or 36	König, Ober, Unter	No	Skat, Schafkopf, Doppelkopf
Germanic — Swiss	Acorns, shields, roses, bells	36	König, Ober, Under	No	Jass
Tarot	Latin or French + 22 trumps	78	King, Queen, Knight, Knave	Yes	Tarocchi / Tarock / cartomancy

Why there are so many systems: history and geography, not chaos

The reason is purely historical and has a beautiful geographic logic. Playing cards enter through the south (Italy and Spain) with Latin suits inherited from the Islamic world, where there were no human figures represented. As printing rises toward the center of Europe, each area rewrites the suits with its iconography: in the Germanic area acorns and leaves triumph; in the Swiss valleys, shields and roses. And then France delivers the definitive blow at the end of the 15th century: it reduces everything to four flat silhouettes in two inks, stampable with a stencil. The cheapest deck to produce in history is born and, for that reason —not for being pretty, for being cheap—, the one that conquers the world via Rouen and England. That they all coexist today is not disorder: it is a cultural map. Each deck tells you where it comes from and what is played with it there.

Pintas, indices and other practical details

Each system solved in its own way the problem of "reading" the card without spreading the hand. The Spanish one uses the pintas (cuts in the frame that encode the suit). The French one uses corner indices (number/letter + miniature suit), a 19th-century invention that allowed holding the hand with a single hand —decisive in poker and bridge—. The Germanic one marks the suit in positions that also distinguish Ober from Unter. These details are not anecdotal: they explain why certain systems fit better with certain game mechanics.

Frequent mistakes when talking about types of decks

1. Believing that "poker deck" is a brand: no; it is the 52-card French system. Poker is just one of the hundreds of games played with it.
2. Confusing system with pattern: "English deck" is a pattern within the French system, not a system apart.
3. Thinking the tarot is only divinatory: it was born as a trick-taking game in 15th-century Italy; cartomancy arrived >300 years later.
4. Assuming all have 52 cards: the Spanish one 40/48, the German one 32/36, the Swiss one 36, the tarot 78. There is no single number.
5. Buying bridge size for magic/cardistry: the standard is poker; the bridge is only advisable in wide-fan games.
6. Saying the German deck "is like the French one but old": it is a system of its own, older to standardize and with no Queen; the French one derives from it, not the other way around in standardization time.

A timeline that orders the whole map

• ~1370–1377: playing cards arrive in Europe from Mamluk Egypt; documented in France in 1377. Latin suits, no human figures.
• ~1440–1450: the tarot is born in northern Italy as a trick-taking game (carte da trionfi), with trumps and the Fool.
• ~1450: the Germanic system (hearts, bells, leaves, acorns) and the Swiss one (acorns, shields, roses, bells) are standardized.
• ~1480: Rouen simplifies the Germanic one into four silhouettes in two inks; exports to England and forges the English pattern there.
• 16th century: the Germanic deck eliminates the Queen (Ober/Unter).
• 1711–1765: British stamp duty; the Ace of Spades is stamped and then printed by the State.
• ~1750–1789: the divinatory use of the tarot appears (Bolognese manuscript ~1750; Court de Gébelin 1781; Etteilla, first divinatory deck ~1789).
• 19th century: corner indices become widespread; the joker is born in the US (Euchre, ~1860); Goodall reworks the English pattern.
• ~1900: the French tarot adopts the Tarot Nouveau; the Marseille remains mostly for cartomancy. 1909: Rider–Waite–Smith.
• 1960: the British tax on playing cards is abolished.

With this line, each deck you have in your hand stops being a loose object and becomes a concrete point on a family tree. Two of its branches, calmly: the history of the poker deck and the guide to its suits.

Which to choose according to use? (a recommendation with criteria)

1. Traditional Spanish games (mus, tute, guiñote): a Spanish deck, 40 or 48 cards, Castilian pattern unless you play with Catalans.
2. Poker, blackjack, solitaires, modern play: a 52-card French deck, poker size, a good finish. It is the most versatile; when in doubt, this one.
3. Central European games (Skat, Schafkopf): German or French of 32 depending on the region; ask whoever you play with.
4. Magic: a quality French one (air-cushion finish) and, depending on the effect, some gaff one. Start with the magic section.
5. Cardistry: French poker size, symmetrical back, paper with "snap". The cardistry section.
6. Collecting: premium and limited editions (premium / collecting).
7. Tarot: to really play, a Tarot Nouveau; for symbolic reading, a Marseille or a Rider–Waite–Smith.

Still in doubt? The guide which deck of cards to buy takes you by the hand according to your profile. And to see it all, the playing card decks category and the poker ones.

Frequently asked questions

How many cards does a deck have according to the system?

Spanish 40 or 48. French 52 (+1–2 jokers) or 32 reduced (Skat/Belote). German 32 or 36. Swiss 36. Tarot 78. There is no single number: it depends on the system and the game.

What is the difference between a Spanish and a French deck?

Suits (coins/cups/swords/clubs vs hearts/diamonds/clubs/spades), figures (Knave/Knight/King vs Jack/Queen/King, the Spanish one with no Queen) and number of cards. Functionally the suits correspond: coins↔diamonds, cups↔hearts, swords↔spades, clubs↔clubs.

Does the German deck have a Queen?

No. It uses König, Ober and Unter; the Queen was eliminated in the 16th century. Ober and Unter are distinguished by where the suit symbol appears (top/bottom). It is one of the most striking differences versus the French one.

Is the tarot for playing or only for divining?

It was born to play trick-taking games in 15th-century Italy (carte da trionfi). Cartomancy is a much later use —late 18th century— and is not its origin. Tarock and the French Tarot are still played today.

Which deck do I buy if I just want one for everything?

A 52-card French deck, poker size and a good finish (air-cushion): it works for playing almost anything, learning basic magic and simple flourishes. The most versatile option, no debate.

What are gaff or trick decks?

Decks (almost always French) with special cards —double faces, marked, Svengali, stripper, Brainwave— designed for magic effects with minimal manipulation: the deck does much of the work.

Are "English deck" and "French deck" the same?

The same system, a different pattern. The "English" one is the most widespread drawing pattern within the French suit system. They are not different systems; confusing it is the most common mistake.

Now you have the real map of the types of playing card decks, system by system and with no myths. Keep going deeper with the poker deck suits or the history of the Spanish deck, decide with which deck of cards to buy and choose yours in playing card decks.