There is the French expression fagoté comme l'as de pique-that is, "(badly) dressed like the ace of spades." In Unicode Various idioms involving the ace of spades include, "black as the ace of spades," which may refer either to color, race, (lack of) morality, or (lack of) cleanliness in a person. Saddam Hussein got the nickname "Ace of Spades" as that card bore his image. More recently, in 2003 a deck of most-wanted Iraqi playing cards was issued to US Soldiers during Operation Iraqi Freedom, each card had the picture of a wanted Iraqi official on it. It was not unheard of for US Soldiers and Marines to stick this card in their helmet band as a sort of anti-peace sign. The ace of spades, while not a symbol of superstitious fear to the Viet Cong forces, did help the morale of American soldiers. The plain white tuck cases were marked "Bicycle Secret Weapon", and the cards were deliberately scattered in villages and in the jungle during raids. This custom was said to be so effective that the United States Playing Card Company was asked by Charlie Company, 2nd Battalion, 35th Infantry Regiment to supply crates of that single card in bulk. Supposedly, US troops believed that Vietnamese traditions held the symbolism of the spade to mean death and ill-fortune and in a bid to frighten and demoralize Viet Cong soldiers, it was common practice to mockingly leave an ace of spades on the bodies of killed Vietnamese and even to litter the forested grounds and fields with the card. Some twenty years later, a folk legend about the ace of spades being used by American Soldiers during the Vietnam War was popularized. Battalions within the regiments were denoted with tic marks or dots, marked from top clockwise: headquarters at the twelve o'clock position, 1st Battalion at the three o'clock, etc. All four card suits were used for easy of identification of regiments within the airborne division following the confusion of a large scale combat airborne operation. In this capacity, it was used to represent good luck, due to its fortunate connotations in card playing. In the Second World War, the soldiers of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the American 101st Airborne Division were marked with the spades symbol painted on the sides of their helmet. The ace of spades has been employed, on numerous occasions, in the theater of war. JSTOR ( December 2016) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message)įile:OperationBaker1967Vietcongaceofspades.ogv.Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. This section needs additional citations for verification. His ace design was adorned with male and female figures leaning onto the spade from either side. White was granted US design patent US0D0013473 for his design. For example, on December 5, 1882, George G. The exact design of the ace card was so important, it eventually became the subject of design patents and trademarking. The ace of spades is thus used to show the card manufacturer's information. The system was changed again in 1862 when official threepenny duty wrappers were introduced and although the makers were free to use whatever design they wanted, most chose to keep the ornate ace of spades that is popular today. In 1828 the Duty Ace of Spades (known as "Old Frizzle") was printed to indicate a reduced duty of a shilling had been paid. In 1765 hand stamping was replaced by the printing of official ace of spades by the Stamp Office, incorporating the royal coat of arms. From 1712 onwards, one of the cards in the pack, usually the ace of spades, was marked with a hand stamp. Over the years a number of methods were used to show that duty had been paid. Stamp duty, an idea imported to England by Charles I, was extended to playing cards in 1711 by Queen Anne and lasted until 1960. The ornate design of the ace of spades, common in packs today, stems from the 17th century, when James I and later Queen Anne imposed laws requiring the ace of spades to bear an insignia of the printing house.
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