Quinto (card game)

Quinto is a card game invented by "Professor Hoffmann", stage and pen name for Angelo Lewis (1839-1919), an English lawyer and conjuror. The description here is based on his little book Quinto: a New and Original Card Game, issued in 1907 by playing-card manufacturers Goodall & Son of London. The book is the size of a playing card, being designed to fit into a package with the cards. Notes in the book refer to different practices of play in Britain and America, suggesting that the game had already been current for a while. The game has never achieved great popularity, but continues to appear in some card game books. While not as original as the inventor suggests, it has at least two rare features: the possibly unique idea of a hierarchy of trump suits (see below), and the not quite unique use of a 53-card pack.