# How Pokémon card numbers and secret rares work

> What the collector number on a Pokémon card means, why some numbers are higher than the set’s size, and how subsets and promos are numbered.

A Holofile guide: https://holofile.app/guides/pokemon-card-numbers-and-secret-rares (updated 2026-10-16)

Most Pokémon cards print a collector number, like **238/191**. It tells you where the card sits in its set, and sometimes that it’s one of the rarest cards in it.

## Reading a collector number

The first number is the card’s number in the set. The second is the size of the **main set**: the cards numbered from 1 up to it. In 238/191, the card is number 238 of a main set of 191.

Numbers are printed near the bottom of the card, usually beside the set symbol.

## Secret rares

When the first number is higher than the second, the card is a **secret rare**: it’s numbered past the main set. Many sets have dozens. [Surging Sparks](https://holofile.app/pokemon/sets/scarlet-violet/surging-sparks), for example, has a main set of 191 and 61 secret rares numbered past it, for 252 cards in all. Secret rares are usually the set’s rarest and most valuable cards, like its Special Illustration Rares and Hyper Rares.

Each set page on Holofile shows the main set’s size and how many secret rares the set has.

## Subsets with letter prefixes

Some sets have a group of cards numbered on their own, with a letter prefix: Trainer Gallery cards (TG01, TG02…), Galarian Gallery cards (GG01…), Radiant Collection cards (RC1…) and Shiny Vault cards (SV1…). They belong to the set but count separately from its main numbers.

## Promos

Promotional cards come in promo sets with numbers of their own, often with a prefix for their era, like SWSH001 for Sword & Shield promos. Some recent promo sets print just a number.

## Japanese cards

Modern Japanese cards are numbered the same way, like 217/187, though the numbers rarely match the English printing of the same card. The earliest Japanese cards don’t print a set number at all: they show the Pokémon’s Pokédex number instead. See [English vs Japanese cards](https://holofile.app/guides/english-vs-japanese-pokemon-cards).

## Finding a card by its number

Open the set’s card list from [all sets](https://holofile.app/pokemon/sets) and find the number: the list is in number order, and each card links to its page with its printings and prices.