Editing Face card (section)

{{Short description|Playing card depicting a person}}

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|footer=Three court cards (face cards) from an English pattern pack}}
{{Redirects|Court card|the postcard|Court card (postcard)}}
In a deck of [[playing card]]s, the term '''face card''' (US) or '''court card''' (British and US),<ref>{{cite journal|last=Wedgwood|first=Hensleigh|authorlink=Hensleigh Wedgwood|title=On False Etymologies|journal=Transactions of the Philological Society|url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.b3924121;view=1up;seq=81|year=1855|issue=6|pages=71}}</ref> and sometimes '''royalty''', is generally used to describe a card that depicts a person as opposed to the [[pip cards]]. In a [[standard 52-card pack]] of the [[English pattern]], these cards are the [[King (playing card)|King]], [[Queen (playing card)|Queen]] and 
[[Jack (playing card)|Jack]]. The term '''picture card''' is also common, but that term sometimes includes the [[Ace]]s. After the American innovation of corner-indices, the idea of "pictured" cards from tarot trumps was used to replace all 52 cards from the standard deck with pictures, art, or photography in some souvenir packs featuring a wide variety of subjects (animals, scenery, cartoons, pin-ups, vehicles, etc.) that may garner interest with collectors.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://i-p-c-s.org/history.html|title=History of Playing-Cards|website=i-p-c-s.org|publisher=The International Playing-Card Society|access-date=September 7, 2024}}</ref>

[[Image:Class 8 (4-8-0) Playing Cards.jpg|thumb|A 'picture card' that is not a 'face card.']]

In the standard packs of non-English speaking regions, the face or court cards may be different. For example, in [[Italian-suited cards|Italian-]] and [[Spanish-suited packs]] there is a [[Knight (playing card)|Knight]] or [[Cavalier (playing card)|Cavalier]] instead of a Queen. In [[French-suited]] [[Tarot card pack]]s, the Cavalier is a fourth court card. By contrast, [[German-suited packs]] typically depict an officer or overlord, known as the [[Ober (playing card)|Ober]], and a sergeant or peasant known as the [[Unter (playing card)|Unter]].

Until the early 20th century, the term '''coat card''' was also common.
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