Le_Corsair
I got a copy of the 1JJ Swiss today in the mail, it is an old copy from the 70's with French titles. As I separated the cards into suits/trumps major in order to check that all of the cards were there, I became aware of the strange Roman numbering system of this deck, specifically, that some suits employ the newer subtractive system of Roman numbering, and other suits and the majors employ the older additive numbering system. I did a quick search on the forums for a question of this type and didn't find one, hence this thread.
What on earth is the purpose of this strange numbering system? For those of you that don't have the deck, here is what the numbering looks like:
Majors: Fool, I, II, III, IIII, V, VI, VII, VIII, VIIII, X, XI, XII, XIII, XIIII, XV, XVI, XVII, XVIII, XVIIII, XX, XXI.
Swords: I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII, VIII, IX, X, P, Kn, Q, K.
Wands: I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII, VIII, IX, X, P, Kn, Q, K.
Coins: I, II, III, IIII, V, VI, VII, VIII, IX, X, P, Kn, Q, K.
Cups: I, II, III, IIII, V, VI, VII, VIII, VIIII, X, P, Kn, Q, K.
You can see that the variation is in the 9 of Coins and 9 of Cups, and also in the 4's; a strange mixture of additive and subtractive numbering. I'm just curious. (this strange numbering is identical on both of my copies of the 1JJ, old and new, so it has to be intentional.)
Bob
What on earth is the purpose of this strange numbering system? For those of you that don't have the deck, here is what the numbering looks like:
Majors: Fool, I, II, III, IIII, V, VI, VII, VIII, VIIII, X, XI, XII, XIII, XIIII, XV, XVI, XVII, XVIII, XVIIII, XX, XXI.
Swords: I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII, VIII, IX, X, P, Kn, Q, K.
Wands: I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII, VIII, IX, X, P, Kn, Q, K.
Coins: I, II, III, IIII, V, VI, VII, VIII, IX, X, P, Kn, Q, K.
Cups: I, II, III, IIII, V, VI, VII, VIII, VIIII, X, P, Kn, Q, K.
You can see that the variation is in the 9 of Coins and 9 of Cups, and also in the 4's; a strange mixture of additive and subtractive numbering. I'm just curious. (this strange numbering is identical on both of my copies of the 1JJ, old and new, so it has to be intentional.)
Bob