talkmagic.co.uk

Hi,

Whenever you perform card tricks you could use some of these interesting facts as you are shuffling just for a bit of patter.
If anyone has any other interesting facts I'd be grateful to hear them.

1. Originated from China around 12th century, where paper was invented.
2. Two colours – black and red to represent night and day
3. Four suits to represent four seasons
4. Thirteen cards per suit to represent lunar months in a year
5. Twelve court cards to represent the calendar months of the year
6. (My favourite) If you assign 1 to the value of an ace, two to a two, three to a three,Eleven to a jack, twelve to a queen and thirteen to a king then….You will get a total of 364. This happens to be the number of days in a lunar year which is 13 months, each comprising 28 days. Add a joker for 365 being the number of days in a year and another joker for a leap year !
7. The French used to tax the Ace of Spades so a lot of space was given for this card so that it could be stamped to show the tax was paid ! Nowadays, card manufacturers stamp their own logos instead.
8. King of Hearts represents King Charlemagne first Holy Roman Emperor born around 742 (and only King in the deck without a moustache), King of Clubs – Alexander the Great, King of Diamonds represents Julius Caesar and the King of Spades – King David of Israel
9.Queen of Spades represents Athena, the Greek goddess of war
10. Jack of clubs represents Sir Lancelot

Quite interesting

I seem to remember my mum (many moons ago) having a old song with somthing similar on it!!

the tax on playing cards wasnt abolished over here until 1961 i think...it was done to pay for many a medievil type war originally...

if you owned a deck of cards, it was seen that you could make money from them...

Thats really interesting thanks.

I'm sure you could add this into patter and make a trick of it. Of the top of my head- Jay Sankey's bodyguards with the kings, who is the kidnapper that stole the tax man?

Good post.

Most of this has been covered in a previous post a while back, but nice suggestions.

I especially like the idea of the tax and the monarchy—especially the taxes paying for wars. Reminds me of our own monarchy and the US...

(seige awaits the fires of flaming from the loyalists amongst you)

http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/~daf/i-p-c-s.or ... spades.php

and

http://bridgehands.com/Newcomer/history.htm

Oh, oh, please sir, me sir!

Charlemagne was also the first person to introduce a single currency to Europe.

And he had an asbestos tablecloth that he used to throw on the fire as a trick.

Did I read this in Vol 1 of Card College? Or has senility finally kicked in?

Richard

When I do my Oil and Water routine, I patter on about how they print the red cards using dye made from rose petals and the black cards from melted down anvils. I then demonstrate this by dropping the black packet slightly before the red packet, so it falls to the table first. Hence the reason why the black cards always sink to the bottom of the packet. It's an idea I got from a Chad Long lecture and always gets a laugh.

seige wrote:I especially like the idea of the tax and the monarchy—especially the taxes paying for wars. Reminds me of our own monarchy and the US...

Oh, yeah, go Americans! Don't make us boycott your asses again, we take our sh*t severely. We are the Sons of Liberty, the Freemasons! What have you got to say about Trenton? Huh?! What?!! Tryin' to pick up mercenaries from Germany, oh no you didn't! We threw down at Yorktown! Yorktown! We schooled your man Cornwallis. What?! What?! You ain't got nothin'! Come again, we knock you back down! Awooooo!

Probably not the best thing to say on a UK based forum.

monker59 wrote:You ain't got nothin'! Come again, we knock you back down! Awooooo!

Don't forget the you also have the failed invasion of Grenada, the failed war in Vietnam, the failed incursions into Cambodia and Laos, and various failed wars by proxy in Central America... That's only the last century. After 9/11, you managed to turn world opinion from one of shared world grief into outright hatred in mere months by being seen to do exactly what Orwell said we should always guard against: dragging people from their homes and pressing their faces into the dirt with jackboots while forcing them to accept your version of democracy, scarce comprehending in the process that democracy is organic, not something you impose from the barrel of a gun.

We, on the other hand, have a modest but glorious selection of clear cut victories at Agincourt, Stamford Bridge, Waterloo, El Alamein, the Battle of the Nile, the Battle of Britain, the whole kicking-the-Romans-out thing... The list is practically endless, fighting against less happy nations. In losing the US colonies, we gained a far larger prize: the British Empire, which covered so much of the world, the sun literally couldn't set on it. So, keep your mosquito-filled swamps, your harbours full of tea and your bellicose posturing. We've got something far better. Respect.

I quite enjyoed writing that. Very cathartic.

Monker what the hell was that post about, you've kinda let yourself with it.

Ahh Monker.......

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ul7EDYXmDNE

PS Hes joking

Tomo wrote:In losing the US colonies, we gained a far larger prize: the British Empire, which covered so much of the world, the sun literally couldn't set on it.

Don't forget GB has been unbeaten since 1066!!! And don't point to the US war of independence. The UK won that too - it was UK settlers beating a German king!!!

Rule Britannia and all that...

jacko removes tongue from cheek!!

Richard

Anyway, back onto topic and away from the great debate between America and England , these 10 facts are pretty interesting! Are all them true aswell?