This colorful, little-known term for “playing cards” was used by the Puritans, who considered it sinful to play cards or even have a deck of cards in the house. In fact, it wasn't until the mid-nineteenth century that playing cards was deemed permissible in devout New England homes. Long before this, however, sixteenth-century clergymen issued playing cards bearing scriptural passages and Cardinal Mazarin taught France's Sun King history, geography and other subjects by printing instructive text on “educational” playing cards. We take our fifty-two-card deck from the French, but there is a fifty-six-card deck (Italian), a thirty-two-card deck (German) and many others around the world. Playing cards are also called pasteboards because they were made of pasteboard for centuries, the paste making them opaque so that they couldn't be seen through. It was only after 1850 that designs were printed on the backs of cards, for gamblers before that date felt that plain white backs couldn't be so easily marked as decorative ones.