​​my playing card collection

The four suits initially represented the four social classes in medieval society, chalices or communion cups for the clergy, swords for nobility, coins for merchants, and staffs or wands for the peasantry. Hearts eventually replaced the chalice symbol; spades were derived from the old Spanish word 'espada' for sword symbolising the warrior class; diamonds recalled the chequered floor of the diamond-shaped tiles of the exchanges where merchants undertook business; and clubs, with the trefoil symbol of the three-leafed clover, represented the peasants.