Pip Cards
From Association of Independent Readers and Rootworkers
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In regular playing cards, the pips are small symbols on the fronts of the cards that determine the suit and the number of the card. A standard 52-card poker deck consists of four suits of thirteen cards each -- generally spades, hearts, clubs, and diamonds. Each suit contains three face or court cards, the jack, queen, and king. The other ten cards are the pip cards and are numbered from one to ten. The first card in the series is usually called the "ace" rather than the "one;" the second is the "deuce;" and the third is the "trey." The rest are named sequentially, the "four," "five, "six," and so on.
In some, but not all, playing card decks the pip cards contain a code at the top left-hand and lower right-hand corners, called the "index." The index tells the person holding the card the numerical value of the card and the suit. The center of the card contains pips representing the suit, with the number of pips corresponding to the number of the card.
The arrangement of the pips is generally the same from deck to deck, to make for ease of reading the pips, but there are numerous examples of pip cards in which the pips are arranged almost at random, or decoratively with respect to a picture or image on the card. This is especially true of some tarot card decks, in which the pip cards -- sometimes called the "minor arcana" or lesser mysteries -- are almost as ornately designed as the court cards and trumps and the pips themselves may be superimposed over a pictorial image or incorporated into it.
See Also
- Trump Cards
- Court Cards
- Pip Cards
- Card Suits
- Card Layouts
