Acorns (suit)
Acorns (German: Eichel, or more unusually Hackl or Ecker) is a suit in a deck of German playing cards or Swiss playing cards. This suit was invented in 15th century German speaking lands and is a survivor from a large pool of experimental suit signs created to replace the Latin suits. Around 1480, French card makers adapted this sign into clubs in a French deck (known as clovers in France).[1]
In English, cards are referred to as in a French deck (e.g. the "10 of Acorns"), but in German as Eichel-Zehn.
Acorns are the highest suit in the games of Skat, Schafkopf and Doppelkopf, but the lowest in Préférence. In Watten, the 7 of Acorns (the Spitz or Soach) is the third highest trump card.
The gallery below shows a suit of Acorns from a German-suited deck of 32 cards. The pack is of the Saxonian pattern:
7
8
9
10
Individual cards[]
The following cards have special powers or names in certain games:
- Ober of Acorns - permanent top trump in Schafkopf, where it is known as the Old Man (der Alte)
- Unter of Acorns - permanent trump in Schafkopf and top trump in Skat.
- Seven of Acorns - one of the top three trumps in games like Watten, where it is called the Spitz ("tip" or "point")
References[]
- ^ Dummett, Michael (1980). The Game of Tarot. London: Duckworth. pp. 10–32.
German playing cards | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Standard 36-card German deck |
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| Others | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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