It may seem surprising to you. The suits of playing cards were not always the four classes in a deck Diamonds, Hearts, Spades, and Clubs. So, what suits initially were?
Historical evidence confirms that the four suits in the deck of playing cards which we use today for playing card game casino can be traced back the Chinese culture of the 14th century.
The Chinese are believed to be the first ones to use these cards while playing card games. Their suits clearly represented money and were called coins, myriads of strings, tens of myriads and strings of coins. Mamluks of Egypt made a series of changes to these cards and passed them along to Europeans in the 1370s.
The Europeans added a little Italo-Spanish leverage and termed these suits cups, clubs, swords and coins. Numerous researchers believe that these four suits signified the four classes of people: clergy, soldiers, farmers, and merchants.
In the 15th century, the suits were changed again and termed as hearts, bells, acorns, and leaves in the German-speaking lands. After them, the French made some small alterations and it is being followed till date.
This suit system got huge fame due to the easy nature of playing and cheap manufacturing costs. The French reserved the hearts and used diamonds replacing bells. They tailored the acorns for trifles which stand for clovers or clubs and additionally introduced piques for spades replacing leaves.
The symbolization
These days, numerous researchers also suggest that the French suits represented the four classes at the time. Hearts symbolize the clergies, diamonds symbolize the merchants, spades symbolize the nobility, and clubs symbolize the peasants.
While the signs on the cards are termed as pips, the two suits of hearts and diamonds are red while the two suits of clubs and spades are black. It is also interesting to make out that these suits and cards are available in numerous variations as well, which are designed in a way so as to draw particular local and foreign card admirers.
Happy playing!