Estate Cards

About

Estate Playing Cards brings ancient oblations, 15th century Italy and traditional four suit card decks into the 21st Century through synthesis and modernization. It augments the popular four suits - Church, Corporation, Community, Military with the fifth estate - the Media; replaces the royal & joker cards with family & imperial cards respectively thereby increasing the number of cards in the pack. While five suit decks have been around for almost a century, Estate Playing Cards is a more fundamental modification to traditional playing cards; changes that not only reflect more accurately the modern world but retain some of the earliest features of ancient cards from Europe and Asia.

The Pack

The standard pack has been increased from 52 to 60 Cards consisting of five suits - Waves, Hearts, Diamonds, Clubs and Spades. These suits are referred to as Estates. Each estate contains 12 cards - Ace, Woman, Man, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2. There are also two imperial cards, the Pope and the President, replacing the Joker, making a total of 62 cards

Face values of estate cards are largely determined by the game being played. The family cards generally hold a value of ten, although in certain games Man may be eleven and Woman twelve. Aces are high or low usually with values of 11 or 1 respectively. In games such as 500 and Poker, estates from highest to lowest are Waves, Hearts, Diamonds, Clubs and Spades. In Bridge the estate order is Spades, Hearts, Waves, Diamonds, Clubs.

The Estates

The traditional estates have had several name changes, however the Media has never been included until now.