Playing card

A playing card is one of a set of printed cards used for games. A standard deck has 52 cards, and the number of different orders those cards can be shuffled into is about 8 followed by 67 zeros. That number is so large that a properly shuffled deck is almost certainly in an order that has never existed before in the history of cards, and never will again.^[1] Every shuffle is, mathematically, a world first, and is usually followed by a game of snap.

The kings

In the standard English design of playing cards, the King of Hearts is the only king without a moustache. Historians of card design believe the moustache was lost through centuries of copying, as printers redrew the cards from older cards and a few strokes went missing.^[2] The King of Hearts has not commented and is not believed to have noticed.

• King of Spades: moustache.
• King of Clubs: moustache.
• King of Diamonds: moustache.
• King of Hearts: lost it in the post, over several centuries.

Calendar theories

People have noticed that a deck has 52 cards, like the 52 weeks of a year, four suits like the four seasons and thirteen cards in a suit like the thirteen lunar months. Adding up the values of all the cards gives 364, and one joker makes 365. There is no evidence that playing cards were designed this way. It is the only calendar that was invented after it was found.

See also

• Week – 52 of them, like the cards
• Rectangle – its shape
• Number 7 – how many riffle shuffles it takes to mix a deck well

References

1. Shuffle, S. (2001). Never Before. Deck Press.
2. Pip, K. (1990). “Where Did the Moustache Go?” Card History Quarterly 52: 1.
3. Joker, J. (2009). 365, If You Count Me. Wild Card Books.