King Of Hearts

Delila · February 14, 2001, 2:47pm

Why is the King of Hearts the only King that doesn’t have a mustache?

AWB · February 14, 2001, 3:12pm

He shaves.

mongrel_8 · February 14, 2001, 4:06pm

Well according tho this site:
http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/playing-cards/tmfaq/tmfaq.html

The king originally had a mustache but it was lost in bad copying.

Podkayne · February 14, 2001, 4:14pm

According to this Playing-Card FAQ, the King of Hearts lost his moustache due to poor reproduction techniques. The design that today’s playing cards are based upon is traced to a design popularized in Rouen in France in the early 16th century. The site linked above says:

Pretty judgemental, I’d say.

don_Jaime · February 14, 2001, 6:23pm

Are we to assume that bad copying is also why the “Suicide King” looks like he’s stabbing himself in the head? The link doesn’t address this.

Podkayne · February 14, 2001, 7:32pm

The “Suicide King” isn’t discussed, but here’s a chart showing the evolution of the card.