Playing Card Suits

Playing cards suits have evolved from the earliest Chinese money-based cards into the suit symbols we find around the world today, including the various European suit-systems (Italian and Spanish, Germanic and Swiss, French and English). There have also been variant, non-standard or experimental suit systems. Articles also include information on different suits used in modern decks, such as those with five suits and variants of traditional designs.

The fact that the “French system” prevailed in the long term is likely due to the fact that it represents a more rational production technique: while the individual acorns and bells, swords and coins etc. had to be printed from woodblocks, the single-colour only form in "French suits" required just stencil printing. This printing method saves the card maker much labour on the forty number cards.