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
Transformation playing card cards had become fixed in most of Europe and America. French cards used hearts, diamonds, spades and clubs. German cards used acorns, leaves, hearts and bells. It was at this time that designers in Germany, France and England began to draw small figures around the pips. The first transformation playing cards were created by D.W. Soltan and D. Berger in 1801 as illustrations for a German edition of Hudibras. The cards illustrated were the 2 of hearts, 3 of hearts, 5 of hearts and 8 of hearts. In 1803, John Nixon published the first complete set (52 cards) of transformed