Playing card/Anglo-American

A standard Anglo-American deck of playing cards is composed of 13 ranks in each of 4 suits, plus 2 joker?s, for a total of 54 cards. The suits used are the French suits of spades and clubs, which are black, and diamonds and hearts, which are red. In each suit there are 10 spot cards, each of which is identified by the number of suit symbols it shows, and three court cards (also called face cards) of the Rouen design that carry highly stylized depictions of persons.

Modern playing cards carry index labels on opposite corners, to facilitate identifying the cards when they overlap. The 1-spot card of each suit is called an ace, and in many games is given the highest rank. It carries the index label "A". The next highest rank in most games is the court card called the king, followed by the other court cards, the queen and jack (also called knave). They carry index labels of "K", "Q", and "J", respectively. Finally, the remaining spot cards ranking numerically from 10 (higest) to 2 (lowest). Their index labels are simple numerals. The 2-spot card is often called a deuce, and the 3-spot a trey.

One of the two jokers is often more colorful or more intricately detailed than the other, but this feature is not used in any common card games. The design of jokers is not standard, and many manufacturers use them to carry trademark designs. It is also common practice now for the Ace of spades to bear special markings that include the manufacturer's name and date of production. This practice originated with the use of that card to carry a British tax stamp.

There is no standard ranking among the four suits, though many games do specify such a ranking. For example, the game of bridge ranks the spade suit highest, followed by hearts, diamonds, and clubs.

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