Joker (playing card) 6 Jokers (3 different pairs) in a 52-card French deck. German Rummy uses 2 packs of French playing cards, with 3 Jokers per pack. The Joker is often compared to "(the) Fool" in the Tarot or Tarock decks. They share many similarities both in appearance and play function. In Central Europe, the Fool, or "Sküs", is the highest trump; elsewhere as an "excuse" ("L'Excuse") that can be played at any time to avoid following suit but cannot win. Practitioners of cartomancy often include a Joker in the standard 52-card deck with a meaning similar to the Fool card of Tarot.
Transformation playing card should be considered a transformation deck, due to these differences. The Dean and Son deck remained the only deck to manipuate the pips until the 1970s, when the practice gained some popularity. Today, cards that do not strictly adhere to standard pip placement, size and color are referred to as semi-transformation playing cards. An article entitled "Playing Card Squiggles." was published in the December 1910 issue of "Strand Magazine". Several "Cotta" cards were pictured, erroneously attributed to an unnamed French artist. "Strand" subsequently asked its readers to submit their own designs for card squiggles, which the magazine periodically published. John