If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, Rolling Stone may receive an affiliate commission. Sitting around around in a small group and wondering what ...

The first record of playing cards dates back to 9th-century China, which would place their invention around the same time as gunpowder and more than 500 years before the printing press. But their ...

“Queen of Nooses” from “The Cloisters Playing Cards” (South Netherlandish, Burgundian territories, 1475–80), paper (four layers in pasteboard) with pen and ink, opaque paint, glazes, and applied ...

Playing cards are known and used the world over—and almost every corner of the globe has laid claim to their invention. The Chinese assert the longest pedigree for card playing (the “game of leaves” ...