Curse of Scotland excluded, making the 7, later called the "beer card", a "stop") but there is no direct relation with the 9. Gomme's book goes on to claim "At the game of Pope Joan, the nine of diamonds is Pope; therefore the nine of diamonds is the curse of Scotland". "The Spectator" review considered the claim "more cogent in form than in matter". A letter written in response to "The Spectator's" book review pointed out that the saying was established well before Culloden, and preferred the Pope Joan theory to other explanations. Other explanations given in the letter were: An 1864 book
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