Ace - Wikipedia

Playing card For other uses, see Ace (disambiguation). See also: Ace of clubs, Ace of clubs (disambiguation), Ace of diamonds, Ace of diamonds (disambiguation), Ace of hearts, Ace of Hearts (disambiguation), Ace of spades, and Ace of Spades (disambiguation)

An ace is a playing card, die or domino with a single pip. In the standard French deck, an ace has a single suit symbol (a heart, diamond, spade, or a club) located in the middle of the card, sometimes large and decorated, especially in the case of the ace of spades. This embellishment on the ace of spades started when King James VI of Scotland and I of England required an insignia of the printing house to be printed on the ace of spades. This insignia was necessary for identifying the printing house and stamping it as having paid the new stamp tax.[1] Although this requirement was abolished in 1960, the tradition has been kept by many card makers.[2] In other countries the stamp and embellishments are usually found on ace cards; clubs in France, diamonds in Russia, and hearts in Genoa because they have the most blank space.

Etymology

[edit]

The word "ace" (/ˈeɪs/, EYSS) comes from the Old French word as (from Latin 'as') meaning 'a unit', from the name of a small Roman coin. It originally meant the side of a die with only one pip, before it was a term for a playing card.[3] Since this was the lowest roll of the die, it traditionally meant 'bad luck' in Middle English, but as the ace is often the highest playing card, its meaning has since changed to mean 'high-quality, excellence'.

Ace promotion

[edit] Ace of batons ("bastos") from a Spanish deckSau (Vienna, 1573)

Historically, the ace had a low value and this still holds in many popular European games (in fact many European decks, including the French- and Latin-suited decks, do not use the "A" index, instead keeping the numeral "1"). The modern convention of "ace high", in which the ace is the highest card of the house, seemed to have happened in stages. Card games, before they arrived in Europe, had suits that were in reverse ranking. In the Chinese game of Mǎ diào, which lacked court cards, the suit of coins was inverted so the 1 of Coins was the highest in its suit.[4][5] In the Ganjifa games of Persia, India, and Arabia, only the pip cards of half the suits were reversed so the 1 ranked just below the lowest court card. This convention carried over to early European games like Ombre, Maw, and Trionfi (Tarot). During the 15th and 16th centuries, the ranking of all suits were becoming progressive. A few games from this period like Triomphe, has the ace between the ten and the jack. The earliest known game in which the ace is the highest card of its suit is Trappola.[6] In ace–ten games like brusquembille, pinochle and sixty-six, the ace dragged the 10 along with it to the top so the ranking became A-10-K. Some games promoted the deuces and treys too like Put, Truc, and Tressette. "King high" games were still being made in the 17th century, for example cribbage. Many games, such as poker and blackjack, allow the player to choose whether the ace is used as a high or low card. This duality allows players in some other games to use it as both at once; some variants of Rummy allow players to form melds, of rank K-A-2 or similar. This is known as "going around the corner".

It was not only the French deck which experienced this promotion, but some games involving the Swiss and German deck also evolved into using the Daus (deuce) as the highest card.[7] The ace had disappeared during the 15th century, so the deuce took its place.[6] The Ass (ace) and Daus (deuce) were conflated into a single card and the names are used interchangeably along with Sau (sow) as early cards of that rank depicted a pig. Some decks in southern Germany use "A" for the index because "D" is reserved for Dame (Queen) in French-suited decks. Confusion is also avoided as German-suited decks lack numbered cards below "7" or "6". Despite using French-suited cards, Russians call the Ace a Deuce (tuz), a vestige of a period when German cards were predominant in central and eastern Europe.

In Unicode

[edit]

The aces are included in the Playing Cards:[8]

• U+1F0A1 🂡 PLAYING CARD ACE OF SPADES
• U+1F0B1 🂱 PLAYING CARD ACE OF HEARTS
• U+1F0C1 🃁 PLAYING CARD ACE OF DIAMONDS
• U+1F0D1 🃑 PLAYING CARD ACE OF CLUBS

References

[edit]

1. ^ Mann, Sylvia (1990). All Cards on the Table. Leinfelden: Jonas Verlag. pp. 128–130.
2. ^ Knuckle, White, A Brief History of Playing Cards
3. ^ Parlett, David (1990). The Oxford Guide to Card Games. Oxford: Oxford. p. 32.
4. ^ Lo, Andrew (2000). "The Late Ming Game of Ma Diao". The Playing-Card. 29 (3): 115–136.
5. ^ Lo, Andrew (2000). "The Game of Leaves". Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. 63 (3): 389, 390, 405. doi:10.1017/s0041977x00008466.
6. ^ a b Dummett, Michael (1980). The Game of Tarot. London: Duckworth. pp. 25–55.
7. ^ John McLeod. "Games played with German suited cards". pagat.com/. Archived from the original on 28 December 2010. Retrieved 2010-11-25.
8. ^ "Playing Cards - The Unicode Standard, Version 13.0" (PDF). Unicode. 2020. Retrieved 6 April 2021.

v t e Playing cards
Standard 52-card deck	Playing card suits (French) Spades Hearts Diamonds Clubs Ranks Ace Ace of spades Ace of hearts King King of hearts Queen Queen of spades Jack Curse of Scotland Beer card Specific decks Ambraser Hofjagdspiel Archaeology awareness Charruan Flemish Hunting Deck Hamas most wanted Hofämterspiel Jerry's Nugget Most-wanted Iraqi Politicards Stuttgart pack Transformation
Other packsand decks	As-Nas Chinese Four-colour pack Ganjifa Ganjapa Karuta Hanafuda Hyakunin Isshu Kabufuda Uta-garuta Kvitlech Polish Russian Tarot pack Tujeon Zi pai
Cards	Banner Blank Court card Knight Ober Unter Pip card Deuce Weli Joker Nicknames Stripped deck Talon Unicode
Other suits	Latin (Italian/Spanish/Portuguese) Cups Coins Batons Swords Germanic (German/Swiss) Acorns Leaves/Roses Hearts/Shields Bells Chinese (Money) Cash Strings of Cash Myriads of Strings Tens of Myriads
Manufacturersand brands	Manufacturers ASS Altenburger Cartamundi Copag Dal Negro Fournier France Cartes F.X. Schmid Gemaco J.O. Öberg & Son Modiano Nintendo Nürnberger-Spielkarten-Verlag Oishi Tengudo Piatnik Ravensburger Trefl U.S. Games Systems United States Playing Card Company Brands Bicycle Grimaud Defunct Aspioti-ELKA Bielefelder Spielkarten C.L. Wüst Charles Goodall Dondorf Lewis Cohen Waddingtons
Notable people	Lee Asher Hubert Auer Bryan Berg David Blaine Derren Brown Lewis Cohen Dan and Dave Thierry Depaulis S. W. Erdnase Lennart Green Richard Harding Johann Kaspar Hechtel Ricky Jay Sekiryo Kaneda René Lavand Ed Marlo Master of the Playing Cards John McLeod Anton Moser Samuel J. Murray David Parlett Ferdinand Piatnik Richard Valentine Pitchford Franco Pratesi Johann Georg Rauch Juan Tamariz Howard Thurston Charles Troedel Dai Vernon Fusajiro Yamauchi
Groups andorganisations	Skat British Skat Association German Skat Association International Skat Court International Skat Players Association 52 Plus Joker Cary Collection of Playing Cards Fournier Museum of Playing Cards German Doppelkopf Association German Playing Card Museum International Playing-Card Society The Playing-Card Musée Français de la Carte à Jouer Saga Arashiyama Museum of Arts and Culture Worshipful Company of Makers of Playing Cards
Card manipulationand cardistry	Tricks The Acme of Control Ambitious Card Blackstone's Card Trick Without Cards The Circus Card Trick The Four Burglars Out of This World Rising Card Spelling Bee Twenty-One Card Trick Bottom dealing Card marking Card sharp Card throwing Cards in the hat Cardistry-Con Cutting Double lift The Expert at the Card Table Herrmann pass History of cardistry House of cards One-way deck Palms and grips Gambler's Magician's Mechanic's Tenkai The Phantom of the Card Table Second dealing Shuffling Faro Gilbreath Zarrow Si Stebbins stack Spoke card Three-card monte Trick decks
Art and media	Paintings The Acrobats The Bezique Game The Card Players The Card Players II Card Players in a Rich Interior The Card Sharp with the Ace of Diamonds Cardplayers in a Sunlit Room The Cardsharps Dogs Playing Poker Still Life with a Poem Violin and Playing Cards on a Table Film and television Card Sharks Playing Cards (1896) Play Your Cards Right Video games Balatro Literature Alice's Adventures In Wonderland (1865)