Blank (playing card)
card worth few or no points

A blank is a playing card in card-point games that is a non-counter, or is worth nothing. In Poker, the term refers to a community card which is extremely unlikely to help any remaining player.
The names of the non-counters varies from region to region and game to game. In Poker, they are blanks, bricks or bombs. In the German games of Schafkopf, Doppelkopf, Sixty-six and Skat, the 7s, 8s and 9s in all card suits are Luschen. In the popular Swiss game of Jass the Luschen are the 6s, 7s, 8s and 9s; unlike Skat, however, the 9 of trumps, "Nell", is worth 14 points and is thus an exception; it ranks in the hierarchy immediately below the highest trump card, the Jack or Unter of Trumps (20 points) and above the Ace of Trumps (11 points). In Schafkopf, the 9s, 8s and 7s are also known as Spatzen ("sparrows") or Zwiebeln ("onions"). There are no blanks in games like Whist or Bridge, because they are plain-trick games where it is the number of tricks that counts, not the value of the cards won.
Similar nicknames are given to very low-scoring cards. For example, in Tarock games, tarocks and pip cards score 1/3 of a point and are called Glatzen or Glatz'n, Skartindeln, Skatindeln or Skartins; and suit cards other than court cards are also called Ladons, Latons or Ladonis.
“Blank (playing card)” enters the record as card worth few or no points. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Blank, playing and card can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Blank (playing card)” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Blank, playing and card provides the most credible route into that argument.
Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jan 30, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1877685. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Blank (playing card)”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Blank (playing card) primary sources, Blank (playing card) archive and Blank research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Blank (playing card)”?
- Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
- Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Blank (playing card)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.