Hi,
Cited from Wikipedia
Naipes Heraclio Fournier S.A. is a playing card manufacturer that was founded in 1868 and is based in Vitoria, Spain. Though it has been owned by The United States Playing Card Company since 1986, not only does it continue to maintain separate manufacturing operations, but it also manufactures certain USPC products sold by its parent company in the States (i.e., Congress bridge playing cards).
It was founded by Heraclio Fournier in 1868. He died in 1916. His grandson Félix Alfaro Fournier took on the administration of the company and started a card collection. In 1970 he acquired the card collection from Thomas De la Rue. His collections formed the Fournier Museum of Playing Cards, now property of the Province Government of Alava.
Their design is the most used for the Spanish deck of cards. In the past, they have also printed postage stamps for the postal authorities of certain countries.
Follow this if you want to read the full monty and have all the links;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naipes_Heraclio_Fournier
"The traditional 40-card Spanish baraja is an ancient deck that existed in Spain since between the 14th-16th century. The suits closely resemble those of Italian cards and Latin suited Tarot decks. In fact, the Baraja, like the tarot, are used for both game playing and cartomancy. The Baraja have been widely considered to be part of the occult in many Latin-American countries, yet they continue to be used widely for card games and gambling, especially in Spain. Among other places, the Baraja have appeared in One Hundred Years of Solitude and other Spanish and Latin American literature (e.g., Viaje a la Alcarria by Camilo José Cela). The Baraja is widely used in Spain, Portugal, and Latin America and almost every Spanish family has at least one Baraja.
Baraja in the Spanish language can refer to any type of card deck.
Cards and Suits
A traditional Spanish deck consists of four suits of ten numbered cards (1-7, and 10-12, with 10,11 and 12 being picture cards). Very rarely the eights and nines are added to create a 48-card deck.[dubious – discuss] Jokers are not used, except in the rare 50 (that is, 48 plus 2) cards deck (where they are called comodines). The four suits are bastos (clubs), oros (literally "golds", that is, golden coins), copas (cups) and espadas (swords).
The four suits are thought to represent the four social classes of the Middle Ages. The suit of coins represents the merchants, the clubs represents the peasants, the cups represent the church and the swords represent the military.
The last three cards of each suit have pictures similar to the jack, queen, and king in an Anglo-French deck, and rank identically. They are the sota, which is similar to the jack and generally depicts a page or prince, the caballo (knight, literally "horse"), and the rey (king) respectively.
There are instances of ancient decks having both caballo and reina (queen), being the caballo of lower value than queen. These decks have no numbers in the figure values, not even letters like in the Anglo-American-French deck. They have been not common for playing in Spain, but some German decks retain the four different figures, albeit lacking most of the numbered cards.
Follow this link to view the Deck;
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/56/Baraja-40-cards.jpg
The cards seem to be ordinary playing cards, without the Major Arcanum.
I found this as reference:
The Baraja is used to play several games. Examples are:
el mus (a very popular and highly regarded vying game of Basque origin)
la brisca (a trick-taking game of Italian origin, very popular in Spain, Portugal, Puerto Rico, and Dominican Republic.)
el tute (with many variations)
el guiñote
la escoba del quince (a trick-taking game)
el julepe
el cinquillo
las siete y media (very similar to black jack)
la mona
el truc (or truco)
el cuajo (a matching game from the Philippines)
las cuarenta (a fishing game, the national card game of Ecuador)
There are also Egyptian and Napier which are Tarot decks.
Hope you have a good idea!
Blessed be.
Welcome to Mystic Board - Free Astrology, Tarot to Psychic Discussion Board. New visitors: Register Now its FAST! Members, please Sign-In.
I have never heard of a deck with only 40 cards compared to the normal 78! i can't wait to hear what some of the more experienced Tarot folks have to say! 
