Curse of Scotland of 1715 and "became universally hated in Scotland". In 18th-century Scotland, the nine of diamonds was sometimes called the "Justice Clerk", and was considered to be the most unlucky card in the pack. James Mitchell's 1825 "Scotsman's Library" claimed that the expression originated from the Duke of Monmouth writing orders on such a card before the Battle of Bothwell Bridge (1679). Despite this, in "The Spectator", a reviewer of an 1885 book by George Gomme commented that the reviewer had believed that the phrase had started from an order written on a 9 by the Duke of Cumberland ("Butcher" Cumberland)
International Playing-Card Society International Playing-Card Society The International Playing-Card Society (IPCS) is a non-profit organisation for those interested in playing cards, their design, and their history. While many of its members are collectors of playing cards, they also include historians of playing cards and their uses, particularly card games and their history. The IPCS is based in the United Kingdom, but has members worldwide, especially in Europe. It produces a quarterly journal "The Playing-Card", which publishes articles mostly in English but also in French, German, Italian and Spanish. It also publishes occasional monographs called "IPCS Papers", and issues pattern sheets which systematize types