Anace is aplaying card,die ordomino with a singlepip. In the standardFrench deck, an ace has a singlesuit symbol (a heart, diamond, spade, or a club) located in the middle of the card, sometimes large and decorated, especially in the case of theace of spades. This embellishment on the ace of spades started whenKing James VI of Scotland and I of England required an insignia of the printing house to be printed on the ace of spades. The mark served to identify the printing house and to confirm payment of astamp tax.[1] Although this legal requirement ended in 1960, many card manufacturers have continued the custom.[2] In other countries the stamp and embellishments are usually found on ace cards; clubs in France, diamonds in Russia, and hearts in Genoa because they have the most blank space.
The word "ace" (/ˈeɪs/,EYSS) comes from theOld French wordas (from Latin 'as') meaning 'a unit', from the name of a smallRoman coin. It originally meant the side of adie with only one pip, before it was a term for a playing card.[3] Since this was the lowest roll of the die, it traditionally meant 'bad luck' inMiddle English, but as the ace is often the highest playing card, its meaning has since changed to mean 'high-quality, excellence'.
Historically, the ace had a low value and this still holds in many popular European games (in fact many European decks, including the French- and Latin-suited decks, do not use the "A" index, instead keeping the numeral "1"). The modern convention of "ace high", in which the ace is the highest card of the house, seemed to have happened in stages. Card games, before they arrived in Europe, had suits that were in reverse ranking. In the Chinese game ofMǎ diào, which lacked court cards, thesuit of coins was inverted so the 1 of Coins was the highest in its suit.[4][5] In theGanjifa games of Persia, India, and Arabia, only the pip cards of half the suits were reversed so the 1 ranked just below the lowest court card. This convention carried over to early European games likeOmbre,Maw, andTrionfi (Tarot). During the 15th and 16th centuries, the ranking of all suits were becoming progressive. A few games from this period likeTriomphe, has the ace between the ten and the jack. The earliest known game in which the ace is the highest card of its suit isTrappola.[6] Inace–ten games likebrusquembille,pinochle andsixty-six, the ace dragged the 10 along with it to the top so the ranking became A-10-K. Some games promoted the deuces and treys too likePut,Truc, andTressette. "King high" games were still being made in the 17th century, for examplecribbage. Many games, such aspoker andblackjack, allow the player to choose whether the ace is used as a high or low card. This duality allows players in some other games to use it as both at once; some variants ofRummy allow players to formmelds, of rank K-A-2 or similar. This is known as "going around the corner".
It was not only the French deck which experienced this promotion, but some games involving theSwiss andGerman deck also evolved into using theDaus (deuce) as the highest card.[7] The ace had disappeared during the 15th century, so the deuce took its place.[6] TheAss (ace) andDaus (deuce) were conflated into a single card and the names are used interchangeably along withSau (sow) as early cards of that rank depicted a pig. Some decks in southern Germany use "A" for the index because "D" is reserved forDame (Queen) in French-suited decks. Confusion is also avoided as German-suited decks lack numbered cards below "7" or "6". Despite using French-suited cards, Russians call the Ace a Deuce (tuz), a vestige of a period when German cards were predominant in central and eastern Europe.
The aces are included in thePlaying Cards:[8]
