Curse of Scotland Gurney Benham's book about playing cards, in describing the game of Pope Joan he gives his own explanation for why this card is known as the Curse of Scotland: "The crown of Scotland contained only nine stones, as they never could afford a tenth". Eric Partridge's "Routledge Dictionary of Historical Slang" considers: “the various theories are as interesting as they are unconvincing”. "Collins Encyclopedia of Scotland" says for "Curse of Scotland" "This is usually taken to be the nine of diamonds playing card, though explanations differ". The 19th century Tarot of Marseilles is one of the standard designs for tarot
Unter (playing card) games using the German style cards, and in German Schafkopf the "Unters" are the highest trump cards. Unter (playing card) The Unter, also called the Wenzel or Wenz, and (in Swiss) also the Under, is a court card in the German and Swiss-suited playing cards, which corresponds to the Jack in French decks. The name "Unter" (lit.: "under") comes from the fact that the suit sign is located in the lower part of the card as opposed to the higher ranking "Ober" (lit. "over") whose suit sign is located on the top of the card. Unters were described soon after