Coins (suit)


The suit of Coins is one of the four card suits used in Latin-suited playing cards alongside Swords, Cups and Batons. These suits are used in Spanish, Italian and some tarot card packs. This suit has maintained its original identity from Chinese money-suited cards.

Characteristics

In Spain, the suit of Coins is known as oros and the court cards are known as the Rey, Caballo and Sota. The Spanish play with packs of 40 or 48 cards. There are no Tens and, in the shorter pack, the Nines and Eights are also dropped. Thus the suit of Coins ranks: R C S 7 6 5 4 3 2 1. In Italy the suit is known as denari and the corresponding court cards are the Re, Cavallo and Fante. Either 40 or 52-card packs are used. In the shorter packs, the Tens, Nines and Eights are removed. Card ranking is thus: R C F 7 6 5 4 3 2 1.
The suit of coins is also one of the four suits used in cartomancy.

Individual cards