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- For the Motörhead album see Ace of Spades (album); for the Motörhead song see Ace of Spades (song)
In a deck of playing cards, the Ace of Spades is commonly thought of as the highest card in the deck, although the actual value of the card varies from game to game.
Design
The ornate design of the Ace of Spades, common in packs today, stems from the 17th Century, when certain duties on playing cards were exacted by the monarchy. William III of England imported the idea of stamp duty and extended these to playing cards in 1711, this taxation lasted until 1960.
Over the years a number of methods were used to show that duty had been paid. From 1712 onwards, one of the cards in the pack, usually the Ace of Spades, was marked with a hand stamp. In 1765 hand stamping was replaced by the printing of official Ace of Spades by the Stamp Office, incorporating the royal coat of arms. In 1828 the Duty Ace of Spades (known as 'Old Frizzle') was printed to indicate a reduced duty of a shilling had been paid.
The system was changed again in 1862 when official threepenny duty wrappers were introduced and although the makers were free to use whatever design they wanted, most chose to keep the ornate Ace of Spades that is popular today.
War
The Ace of Spades has been employed, on numerous occasions, in the theatre of war. In the Second World War, the soldiers of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the American 101st Airborne Division were marked with the spades symbol painted on the sides of their helmets. In this capacity, it was used to represent good luck, due to its fortunate connotations in card playing. All four card suits were used for ease of identification of regiments within the airborne division following the confusion of a large scale combat airborne operation. Battalions within the regiments were denoted with tic marks or dots, marked from top clockwise; Headquarters at the twelve o'clock position, 1st Battalion at the three o'clock, et cetera.
Some twenty years later, the Ace of Spades was again used by American soldiers — this time as a psychological weapon in the Vietnam War. It was erroneously believed that Vietnamese ancient traditions held the symbolism of the spade to mean death and ill-fortune. The soldiers were quick to pick up this misconception, and in a bid to scare away Viet Cong soldiers without firefight, it was common practice to leave an Ace of Spades on the bodies of killed Vietnamese and even to litter the forested grounds and fields with the card. This custom was believed to be so effective, that the Bicycle Playing Cards company was asked to supply crates of that single card in bulk. The crates were often marked with "Bicycle Secret Weapon".
The Ace of Spades, while not a symbol of superstitious fear to the VC, did help the morale of American soldiers. It was not unheard of for US soldiers and Marines to stick this card in their helmet band as a sort of anti-peace sign.
More recently, in 2003 a deck of Most-wanted Iraqi playing cards issued to U.S. soldiers during Operation Iraqi Freedom; each card had the picture of a wanted Iraqi official on it. Saddam Hussein got the nickname "Ace of Spades" as his was the face which adorned that card.
Ace of Spades in Popular Culture
- In Robert Louis Stevenson's story "The Suicide Club" (1878), the Ace of Spades functions as the "sign of death" within a secret society whose members commit "suicide" by submitting to be killed, if they draw the Ace of Spades from a pack of 52 cards during a club meeting, by another member drawing the Ace of Clubs.
- In the film Toy Story 2, Mr. Potato Head and Hamm the Pig play a card game composed of Ace of Spades cards. This comes before Woody had a dream that his child owner, Andy, abandons him for being broken. Woody falls in a vortex full of Aces of Spades, falls through one of the spades, and lands in a trash can under a spade-shaped beam of light.
- The heavy metal band Motörhead's most famous song (and album of the same title) is named after the Ace of Spades.
- The Ace of Spades is featured in the end of George Orwell's Animal Farm when Mr. Pilkington and Napoleon the pig play the card against each other during a card game and start to argue.
- In the episode "Pray Anything" of The Simpsons, traffic reporter Arnie Pie claims that local reporter Kent Brockman's soul is as black as an Ace of Spades.
- The phrase "black as the ace of spades" is very common, referring to objects, the sky, or (disparagingly) black people.
- A blood-stained Ace of Spades is a symbol in the 2004 film Shade.
External links
"Ace of Spades"