Playing cards traveled a long way before they reached France and became the classic hearts, diamonds, clubs, and spades that we know today.
Along the way, most Western European countries adopted their own suit designs, from the Germans and the Swiss to the Spanish and, yes, the Portuguese.
Here’s a breakdown of this rare suit system and where you can find it today.
Why We Use Suits in Playing Cards
The default modern playing card suits are French in origin – but they were adopted by the British and then the Americans, so they quickly became the world default for card games. That’s why you’ll find them in casinos from Nevada to Macau and everywhere in between.
Their ubiquity is further supported by being the standard in online spaces that use playing cards. The iGaming space is full of both digital and live-streamed card games and, no matter which one you pick, you’ll play with the French suits. So when many live table sites today present card games like blackjack, they opt for land-based casino authenticity by using a real felt table, a human host, and the French-suited cards that players all over the world will instantly recognize.
But why do suits exist in the first place? Practically, they make the card deck more dynamic and allow for multiple same-value cards. Symbolically, playing cards share design origins in tarot. In the past, their card art typically depicted renowned figures or events worth remembering. Following that design philosophy, the suits themselves are theorized to represent different classes of medieval society. If true, then hearts could be the clergy, spades could be nobility, diamonds could represent merchants, and clubs could represent peasants.
The Portuguese Playing Card Suits
Most countries where card games have enjoyed popularity, however, at one stage or another eventually found their own unique symbols to put on their cards. That brings us to Portugal’s own suits. In reality, these suits emerged somewhere in southern Spain, but they became heavily associated with Portugal because we refused to switch to the modern standard for longer than most others did. That said, they’re almost extinct today.
As for what the suits are, they’re very similar to other Spanish suits. Spanish and Portuguese suits use espadas (swords), copas (cups), ouros (coins), and then paus (clubs, or bastos in Spanish). These cards were heavily exported, coming to be known as ‘dragon cards’ since Portuguese aces had a distinct dragon painted on their surface.
These export cards fell out of favor in the 1800s, but Portugal kept using them until the early 1900s. They also found their way across the world to places like Peru and even Japan, thanks to their special trade relationship with the Portuguese.
Where Can You Find Portuguese Playing Cards Today?
To date, there are two known places where you can still find Portuguese designs in use – Sicily and Japan.
In Sicily, the tarot game tarocchi is typically played with a Tarocco Siciliano deck. It’s a large 64-card deck that is the only proper remaining European use of the Portuguese suits – swords, cups, coins, and clubs. Its swords are straight, setting it apart as a Latin card deck instead of the curved swords that Italian decks used.
In Japan, Portuguese card games inspired karuta – Japanese playing cards. While internal politics in Japan led to abstract card designs, famous historical decks like the Unsun Karuta clearly show the influence of Portugal’s straight swords and culturally compatible dragon iconography.
That’s the unlikely, far-reaching legacy of Portuguese playing cards. While they started as a popular export across the Mediterranean and beyond, today their influence can still be found in Sicilian tarot games and some of Japan’s earliest card decks.
