Ace of Spades

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by CyberCornEntropic

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In the 17th century, King James I of England and later, in 1711, Queen Anne decided decks of playing cards needed to be taxed and imposed a law requiring one of the cards be printed with the insignia of the printing house so it could be stamped to prove the tax had been paid.  In 1765, hand stamping was dropped in favor of an official ace of spades printed by the Stamp Office and issued to all compliant printing houses.  This was dropped in 1862 so the printing houses could manufacture any old ace of spades they wanted to, but the ornate ace of spades had become traditional, to the point that some designs were patented in the US.  The tax was removed in 1960, but the ace of spades is still gussied up more than the other aces with the card manufacturer's  information.

Playing cards actually come in more than one size.  Bridge cards are a quarter inch thinner than poker cards.  Tarot noveau cards (which use the hearts-clubs-diamonds-spades suits rather than the traditional tarot suits) are longer, have ones instead of aces, and lack an ornate card like the ace of spades.

A design for a playing card that's been sitting on my hard drive quite some time before I remembered it and changed the copyright.  There's three versions for comparison: poker-sized, bridge-sized, and tarot noveau-sized.  The striped tail is my logo.

Art © 2015 Marvin E. Fuller

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