Five pound note, 1971

Harry Eccleston worked for more than 25 years as a banknote designer at the Bank of England and was best known for the series D notes, issued in 1978 and the first fully pictorial series. Eccleston’s portrait of the Queen was on the front of the notes and his drawings of Isaac Newton (£1), the Duke of Wellington (£5), Florence Nightingale (£10), Shakespeare (£20) and Christopher Wren (£50) were on the reverse. He also designed a 50-pence note bearing the figure of Sir Walter Raleigh but it was judged that, in a time of galloping inflation, the life of such a low-denomination note would be short and so a coin was minted instead. His original drawings of the Queen and of Wren were presented to her and in the same year he was appointed OBE.

Reverse Five Pound Note

The five pound note seen here features on the obverse the Queen’s portrait with the reverse featuring the first Duke of Wellington and a scene from the Battle of Fuentes de Onoro (1811) during the peninsula war.

King of Clubs Poster

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Playing card detail

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Playing card history

Playing cards were found in China as early as the 9th century during the Tang Dynasty, although an Indian origin for playing cards has been suggested by the resemblance of symbols on some early European decks to the ring, sword, cup, and baton classically depicted in the four hands of Indian statues of Shiva.

It is likely that the precursor of modern cards arrived in Europe from the Mamelukes of Egypt in the late 1300s, by which time they had already assumed a form very close to that in use today. In particular, the Mameluke deck contained 52 cards comprising four “suits”: polo sticks, coins, swords, and cups.

Though specific design elements of the court cards are rarely used in game play and many differ between designs, a few are notable. The Jack of Spades, Jack of Hearts, and King of Diamonds are drawn in profile, while the rest of the courts are shown in full face; these cards are commonly called “one-eyed”. When deciding which cards are to be made wild in some games, the phrase “acey, deucey, one-eyed jack” (or “deuces, aces, one-eyed faces”) is sometimes used, which means that aces, twos, and the one-eyed jacks are all wild. The King of Hearts is the only King with no mustache, and is also typically shown with a sword behind his head, making him appear to be stabbing himself. This leads to the nickname “suicide king”.
The axe held by the King of Diamonds is behind his head with the blade facing toward him. He is traditionally armed with an axe while the other three kings are armed with swords, and thus the King of Diamonds is sometimes referred to as “the man with the axe” because of this. This is the basis of the trump “one-eyed jacks and the man with the axe”.

The Jack of Diamonds is sometimes known as “laughing boy”. The Ace of Spades, unique in its large, ornate spade, is sometimes said to be the death card, and in some games is used as a trump card.
The Queen of Spades usually holds a scepter and is sometimes known as “the bedpost queen”, though more often she is called “Black Lady”.

In many decks, the Queen of Clubs holds a flower. She is thus known as the “flower Queen”, (though in many playing cards from Germany and Sweden she is depicted with a fan) though this design element is among the most variable; the standard Bicycle Poker deck depicts all Queens with a flower styled according to their suit. Extracted from Wikipedia.org