Playing cards are as old as history, but the suits we use today were introduced to Britain by soldiers returning from the wars of Italy and Spain in the fourteenth century.
The Italian and Spanish cards included a suit picturing real clubs, which the French later changed to a trefoil leaf and the English to a clover.
But because they had learned the game from the Spanish and Italians, English players continued calling them “clubs.”
Card symbols are called “pips.”
Card suits in Spain and Italy are coins, cups, swords, and cudgels (clubs).
In Germany they are hearts, leaves, bells, and acorns.
In Switzerland they are shields, roses,,bells, and acorns.
