Bridge/card trivia continued

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Ace Spades

We have a historical matching game this week — scroll down for the answers to our previous questions about the Ace of Spades.

Match the (alleged) ruler represented by each playing card king (we've given you an identifying hint in brackets):

1.  King of Spades    2.  King of Hearts    3.  King of Diamonds    4.  King of Clubs

A. Julius Caesar (his robe displays a Roman eagle)     B. King David of Israel (the Psalmist, standing by a Harp)    C. Alexander the Great  (wearing a costume embroidered with a lion)    D. Charles the Great, Charlemagne (carrying a Globe, the Emperor of the Christian World)

Answers to our previous post’s trivia questions:

  1. The Ace of Spades was printed larger than any other card as a tax which began during Elizabeth I’s rule, generating significant revenue for the Crown (up until 1960!) Each pack required the official stamp of certification to indicate that the proper English tax was paid — the Stamp Office kept the only stock of pre-stamped Aces of Spades and card manufacturers were forbidden to produce that Ace. 
  2. According to the US Playing Card Company, in 1966 a pair of US lieutenants serving in Vietnam asked to be sent entire decks of the Ace of Spades—the Viet Cong allegedly feared this card as a ‘harbinger of death’. Thousands of these specialty decks were sent back and the ‘death cards’ were scattered throughout the war zone by US troops reportedly as deterrents and as ‘calling cards’ on the bodies of enemy victims.