Holding all the Aces
The History within the Ace Cards
The ace differs between card games more than any other card in the deck. The ace can be the highest, the lowest, or whatever the player chooses it to be. The ace is the same as the other playing cards in that there are four aces in a deck and each of the aces has one of the four suits.
In many of the popular casino games, like poker and blackjack, the player can chose the whether the ace is high or low. Although the ace is sometimes the lowest card in a game, most of the time the aces have the highest value in the games.
Since the ace, representing a one, is technically the lowest card, it is interesting that there is such of an abundance of card games where the ace is an even higher card than the king.
The cause of this abnormality was deliberate and had political undertones. During the French Revolution the ace, representing the lone man, was placed above the king in many games. Even if they were considered nothing to the king, at least they could overthrow him in their card games.
The genre of games that raises the ace above the king became popular during the 1500’s in France.
The Ace of Spades: Death and Taxes
Everyone knows the saying that the only two things that you can be certain of in life are death and taxes.You have probably also noticed that the ace of spades has a design unlike the other three aces in a deck of playing cards. The spade symbol is noticeably larger than the other ace symbols. The ace of spades is the largest symbol in the entire playing card deck.
What is the reason for the ace of spades size? Taxes. In the past, European governments placed heavy taxes on packs of cards. A deck could not be sold unless it had an official tax stamp, which showed that the duty had already been paid. Playing card manufacturers placed the tax stamp onto the ace of spades, the highest available card in a deck.
Even after the tax stamps were no longer used, the manufacturers continued to design the ace of spades larger and different from the other cards because players had become use to the large size of the highest ranking card. Besides the poker cards, the ace of spades are the most selected playing cards of collectors. The tradition has carried on until today and the ace of spades usually has a different design from the rest of the deck along with the name of the manufacturer.
Return to the Playing Card homepage.
Template provided by WEBalley
