<P> A playing card is a piece of specially prepared heavy paper, thin cardboard, plastic - coated paper, cotton - paper blend, or thin plastic, marked with distinguishing motifs and used as one of a set for playing card games . Playing cards are typically palm - sized for convenient handling, and were first invented in China during the Tang dynasty . </P> <P> Playing cards may have been invented during the Tang dynasty around the 9th century AD as a result of the usage of woodblock printing technology and there were 30 cards in a deck . The first possible reference to card games comes from a 9th - century text known as the Collection of Miscellanea at Duyang, written by Tang dynasty writer Su E. It describes Princess Tongchang, daughter of Emperor Yizong of Tang, playing the "leaf game" in 868 with members of the clan of Wei Baoheng, the family of the princess' husband . The first known book on the "leaf" game was called the Yezi Gexi and allegedly written by a Tang woman . It received commentary by writers of subsequent dynasties . The Song dynasty (960--1279) scholar Ouyang Xiu (1007--1072) asserts that the "leaf" game existed at least since the mid-Tang dynasty and associated its invention with the development of printed sheets as a writing medium . However, Ouyang also claims that the "leaves" were pages of a book used in a board game played with dice, and that the rules of the game were lost by 1067 . </P> <P> Other games revolving around alcoholic drinking involved using playing cards of a sort from the Tang dynasty onward . However, these cards did not contain suits or numbers . Instead, they were printed with instructions or forfeits for whoever drew them . </P>

When was the first pack of cards made