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
Diamonds (suit) diamond typically has a diamond shape, a parallelogram with four equal sides, placed on one of its points. The sides are sometimes slightly rounded and the four vertices placed in a square, making the sign look like an astroid. Normally diamonds are red in colour. They can however be depicted in blue, which is the case for example in bridge (where it is one of the two minor suits along with Clubs). The following gallery shows the diamonds from a 52-card deck of French playing cards. Not shown is the Knight of Diamonds used in the tarot card games: The