On tarot:

Whatever the local fortune teller or pastor has told you about tarot cards is wrong.

Trarot cards were NOT invented by egyptians, or gypsies. they were invented in Italy during the 14th-15th c.( no-one is quite sure about the date!)
Neither were they invented for divinatory puropses! they were essentially a extended deck with more cards to make the games more interesting. This becomes especially apparent when you consider the deck's structure.
the structure of a tarot deck:
the tarot deck is divided into 2 parts:

I- A deck of 56 cards, in the 4 Latin suits.
     each of the 4 suits is divided thus:
      1- a series of 10 pip cards, from 1-10
       2 - a series of 4 picture cards, viz: KIng, Queen, Knight ( cavalier), and knave ( jack)

II - A series of 22 cards, called "trumps", which outrank the former series:
21 of these cards bear numbers from 1-21, and one is unnumbered.
***
Part I of the deck is known by the fortune telling dunces a"s the "minor arcana" , and part II as the "major arcana " it is here where you will find the omnimous sounding cards, like death, the hanged man, and the tower: but not to worry, these frgures were very probably taken from characters in triumphal parades.
    

"los dos tigres" ( fournier)

Los dos tigres - fournier, 48c.
this deck is essentially a luxury version of the common or garden Spanish national deck.
http://anthonylesq.blogspot.com/2011/10/spanish-playing-cards.html
What is interesting, however, is that this deck maitains some features that have been lost in the spanish national deck in the meantime. for example, the knight of cups still bears the inscription "AHI VA"
also note the 2 of cups. ot states "DE UNA HOJA"- "ON ONE SHEET"- this message dating back to the days when most cards were made of  sheets of paper & card glued together. a deck that was made of solid card , was therefore, seen to be of better quality, and so this would be advertised
also note the 2 and 3 of coins ( 3rd pic) the maker has cleverly turned the coins to medals, to advertise the superiority of this product!

"piacentine" ( modanio)

Piacentine pattern , by Modanio.
40 cards.
Pedants consider this deck, despite being used in italy, as "spanish suited"
Why?
Well, there are a couple of reasons...
Firstly, compare it with this deck.
http://anthonylesq.blogspot.com/2011/10/trevigiane-venetian-pattern.html (the venetian)
Now; note the shapes of the suits of swords and batons.
In the Piacentine, the swords look like daggers, and are placed seprately, as opposed in the Venetian, where the swords look like curved sabers, joining each other at the ends to form a pleasing oval shape
The same occurs with the batons, which, here, look like lumps of wood, and in Ventian, are represented as staves, or rods, and interlace in a trelis fashion.

***

Now, is it just me, or does the king of coins in this pattern look like the king of diamonds in a bog standard English pattern? ( 3rd image. )

*****

(N.B 2 of coins added for interest. I personaly find the faces on it amusing)

 

For a deck of this pattern produced by the French maker Grimaud , see http://anthonylesq.blogspot.sg/2013/10/no85-carte-di-giuoco-piacentine-pattern.html

Paris pattern ( France Cartes)

This deck is of the paris pattern, and of 32 cards.
this deck is not very interesting, until you compare it with other decks.
try comparing it with ....
http://anthonylesq.blogspot.com/2011/10/paris-pattern-cards.html
http://anthonylesq.blogspot.com/2011/10/paris-pattern-single-faced.html
http://anthonylesq.blogspot.com/2011/10/russian-playing-cards-by-piatnik.html
***
A very interesting feature of this deck is the fact that the court cards have names...
                  king               queen            jack
spades      David         Pallas       Hogier
cubs          Alexander  Argine      Lancelot
hearts       charles      Judith       Lahire
diamonds  cesar         Rachel      Hector

Now, to say that the cards actually  represent the people above (something commonly claimed) is just a matter of wishful thinking. the only exception being the king of spades, ( David) carries a harp, an instrument associated with that king.

saxony pattern cards, single vs double faced

The first deck shown is a traditional saxony patter, which is, in my opinion, the prettiest of the decks to come out of Germany.

the suit of bells (2nd picture) is particularly charming.
Note the Peeping Tom on the ace ( top row, 3rd card from left) 
on the 8 of bells ( 3rd pic, 2nd row, first card from the left), there is a depiction of chickens mating.
above them are strung some sausages. nice.....

sadly, this patern is almost extinct right now. if you buy a saxon pattern, today, you would end up with the "double faced "version...

when you compare the pictures, it is easy why this is called the double faced version.
aldough this version is admittedly easier to play with, it has lost some of the  detail, like the little pictures on the bottom of the cards, ( on the eight of bells, there are neither sausages nor trysting chickens) but still, some features remain (like the roman number X on tens, and the peeping tom on the ace of bells)