World Coins - Dictionary of Numismatic Names.
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Waal. A money of account at Surat. See Raal Lakria.
Wado Kaiho. See Jiu Ni Zene.
Wahrheitsthaler. The name given to a Thaler struck by Henry Julius of Brunswiek-Luneburg in 1597 and 1598. It has on the reverse a nude allegorical figure representing Truth, and at her feet are two monsters labelled CALVMNIA and MENDACIVM. See Lugenthaler, and Madai (No. 1112).
Wakea, or Wakih. A former Abyssinian money of account, based on the weight of an ounce of gold, four hundred English Troy grains, and twenty-one and three quarters carats fine. The relationship to actual coins and the subdivisions are as follows:
Wakea = 5 2/9 Zecchini or Ducats.
= 113/4 Patacas or Species Thaler.
= 80 Amoles or cakes of salt.
= 270 1/4 Kharfs, Harfs. or Dahabs.
= 1.081 Divini or Paras.
= l0.810 Kibear. nr Kebar.
= 32,430 Borjookes or glass heads.
Wampum. A bead made from the clam, conch, and similar shells, and used in former times by the North American Indians as money. The aborigines called it Sewan, which name was copied by the Dutch colonists, and written Seawant and Zewant. The French settlers named it Porcelaine, and the English traders usually referred to it by the name of Wampum.
In 1627 Isaac de Rasieres sailed from New Amsterdam on a trading expedition to the British colony at New Plymouth, Massachusetts, and among other merchandise he had fifty pounds of Wampum, which was accepted with great reluctance by the New Englanders; nevertheless it soon must have become a standard circulating medium of exchange, as in 1637 it was ordered that throughout New England Wampum should pass at "six a-penny" for any sum less than twelve Pence. Three years later, on October 7, 1640, a proclamation was issued that white Wampum should pass at "four a-penny" and blue at "two a-penny," also that not more than twelve Pence in value should be tendered at one time, unless the receiver desired more.
In the following year the Council of New Amsterdam promulgated an ordinance to the effect that all coarse Wampum should pass at six for a Stuiver, and well polished beads should be valued at four for a Stuiver.
Wampum is referred to in Roger Williams' treatise entitled A Kay into the Language of America, published in London in 1643, as follows (cap. xxvi.) :
"Their white [money] they call Wompam, which signifies white; their blacke Suckauhock, Sucki signifying blacke. Both amongst themselves, as also the English and Dutch, the blacke peny is two pence white."
On May 22, 1661, the law authorizing the use of Wampum as legal tender in New England was repealed, and gradually the coinage of silver drove it out of circulation. See Roanoake.
Wand. The name given in Abyssinia to the Thaler of Joseph II. The word means "male," in contradistinetion to Enest (q.v.), i.e., "female," by which the Thaler of Maria Theresa is known.
Wang. A word of Malay origin, and implying small change. The Wang Baharu is a copper coin, the same as the Dubbeltje. See Pitje.
Wan-yin. One of the Chinese names for Sycee Silver (q.v.).
Wappenturnose. A modified form of the Gros Tournois (q.v.), on which a shield of arms was substituted for the original chapel or city gate. It is common to the issues of the Counts of Berg during the fourteenth century and later, and was copied by Hermann IV of Hessen, who was Archbishop of Cologne from 1480 to 1508. See Frey (No. 237).
Ward Penny, or Wardage Money. This term occurs in the Domesday Book and is not a coin but a sum of money paid or contributed for watching and warding.
Warn, or Wharn. The basis of the gold system of Korea and corresponding to the Yen of Japan, and the Yuan of China. The divisions are
1 Warn equal to 10 Niang or Yang
1 Niang equal to 100 Mun.
Gold twenty, ten, and five Warns, and silver Warns and half Warns were issued shortly before the Japanese annexation of the country. See Won.
Warth Money. See Swarf Money.
Waser Thaler. See Hochmuths Thaler.
Washington Cent. See Cent.
Weckenpfennige. The name given to small uniface coins of Bavaria, the Palatinate, etc., struck early in the fifteenth century. The word "Wecken" corresponds to our heraldic term paly-bendy, and these coins are easily distinguished by a shield, the field of which is divided by lines drawn in the directions of the pale and bend.
Weidenbaum Thaler. The name given to a series of silver coins issued bv William V of Hessen-Cassel from 1627 to 1637, all of which have on the reverse the figure of a willow tree, standing upright though subjected to a storm of rain, wind, and lightning.
Weight Money. The name given to certain ancient Chinese coins bearing a weight value and the name of the place of issue, from the seventh to the fourth centuries B.C. The Chinese call the coins Kia tseh
ma, Kiu ma, Pi tch'eng ma, and Tseh ma.(q.v.).
Weihemunzen, also called Betpfennige, are not coins but medals or tokens, issued to commemorate the ordination of an ecelesiastic. They usually bear the figure of the Savior and a cross, and were struck in Bavaria, Wurttemberg, and other parts of southern Germany and Austria.
Weihnachts Thaler, also called Christfest Thaler. This name is applied in general to silver medals of Thaler size, which bear representations of the Nativity.
There are, however, silver coins struck by Johann Georg I of Saxony in 1617 that bear the same name. They were issued in honor of his mother, and were intended as Christmas gifts.
Weissgroschen. See Albus.
Weisskupfer. See Billon.
Weisspfennig. See Albus.
Wellington Tokens. The name given to a series of tokens bearing the bust of Wellington, which were in circulation in lower Canada in vast quantities from 1813 to 1816. They are described in detail liy Dr. E. G. Courteau in the American Journal of Numismatics, 1915 (xlviii. 137).
Wen. The modern Chinese word for "Cash" (q.v.). This word is found on many of the modern struck copper coins. It, however, has been used as a value on paper money since the ninth century, and some of the coins of Hsien Feng (1850-1862) have the word Wen on them. The Cantonese pronunciation is Mun, as is also the Korean. The Annamese word is Van. See Ch'ien.
Wendenpfennige. The name given to a class of silver coins, dating from the tenth and eleventh centuries, which resemble the Bracteates of that period but have peculiar raised edges on both sides. They usually bear on the obverse the representation of a church, and on the reverse a rude cross; in some instances ill-formed inscriptions are also visible.
The Wends were one of the Lusatian branch of the Slavic race and settled in Silesia, Saxony, Brandenburg, etc. The collegiate church or chapter of Giebichenstein, near Halle, received the privilege of striking coins A.D. 987. As it was situated on the main road from Halle and Lausitz (Lusatia) to Poland, it is assumed that many of the Wendenpfennige were issued here.
Wendsiche Pfennige. See Vinkenange.
Weng. A Scotch slang term for a Penny. It is in use at Dundee, etc., at the present day.
Wespenthaler, also called Muckenthaler. A silver coin struck in 1599 by Duke Henry Julius of Brunswick-Luneburg. It has on the obverse a lion with twelve wasps flying around its head and body. The coin is a satirical one, and the insects are supposed to represent certain rebellious subjects of the Duke.
Wewelinghofer. A nickname given to small thick silver coins, issued in Westphalia and vicinity during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. They are of about fifteen millimetres in diameter, whereas the dies impressed on them are of twenty-two millimetres, and in consequence only fragmentary portions of the inscriptions are visible.
The name is obtained from Florenz von Wewelinghofen, Bishop of Munster (1364-l379), who resorted to this practice.
Wharn. See Warn.
Whistler. Evidently at one time a slang designation for a counterfeit Farthing. Vaux, in his Flash Dictionary, 1812, says: "Browns and whistlers, bad half-pence and farthings."
White Geordie. A colloquial Scotch term for a Shilling and very common in Ayrshire. See Yellow Geordie.
Whitehart Silver. Camden, in Remaines Concerning Britain. 1605 (p. 150), states that this "was a mulct on certain lands in or near to the forest of Whitehart, paid into the Exchequer, imposed by Henry III
upon Thomas "de la Linda, for killing a beautiful white hart which that king before had spared in hunting."
White Money is standard silver coin, as distinguished from Black Money {q.v.). The term is used early in the sixteenth century, and in a tract by Thomas Harman, entitled A Caveat or Warening for Vagabones, 1567 (42), occurs the passage: "He plucked oute viii. shyllinges in whyte money. "
Beaumont and Fletcher, in their play. Wit at Several Weapons, 1647 (ii. 1), have the lines:
"Hore's a seal'd bag of a hundred : whioh intleed.
Are counters all. only some sixteen groats
Of white money."
The name was also common to Scotland, and in Blackwood's Magazine, 1820 (p.158), there is a sentence: "My hand has nae been crossed with white money but ance these seven blessed days."
White Shilling. A popular name for the Shilling in both Scotland and Ireland, the allusion being to its white shiny appearaiifc. Thomas Donaldson, in his Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect, 1809 (p. 99), has the line:
"I will give a wliite sliilllng. I swear."
and Seumas MacManus, in The Bend of the Road, 1898 (201), says: "He hadn't a white shillin in his company."
Whitsun Farthings. See Pentecostals.
Whitton. An obsolete form of Witte or Witten. See Rundstuck.
Widow's Mite. See Lepton.
Wiedertaufer Thaler. A silver coin issued at Munster in 1534 by the Anabaptists, under John of Leyden. It is questionable whether they were ever accepted as current coins. See Mailliet (Suppl. 59, 60).
Wiener Pfennige. A general name for the Deniers and Pfennige of Austrian origin, which constituted the great circulating medium of Southeastern Europe from the twelfth to the middle of the fifteenth century. They are largely hammered coins, of crude workmanship, and of inferior purity. The Kreuzer of Tyrol with its division of four Pfennige, eventually succeeded these pieces and became the unit of exchange.
Wig. A Scotch slang term for a Penny and common to Ayrshire.
Wild Cat Money. A popular name for the issues of certain banks in the western part of the United States which were organized under loose state banking laws prior to the Civil War. The original use of the word in this sense is said to have been derived from a bank of this character whose notes bore a figure of a wild cat.
Wildemannsthaler. A silver coin of Brunswick-Luneburg, the ordinary type bearing on the obverse a wild man holding a tree, but the name is also given to the Loserthaler (q.v.), on which two wild men are supporting the armorial shield. Similar designs are found on the Gulden and Pfennige.
The armorial shield of the House of Schwarzburg is supported by a wild man and a wild woman, to be found on the coins of Gunther XL (1537-15.52), dated 1543, etc.
Wilhelm d'Or. A gold coin of Hessen-Cassel, of the value of five Thaler. It receives its name from the Elector Wilhelm II, and was first struck in 1840.
Willem. Another name for the gold coin of ten Gulden, struck by Willem I, King of the Netherlands, pursuant to the ordinance of September 28, 1816. Conf. also Guillemin.
William. A nickname used in some parts of the United States for any denomination of paper monev. It is a play upon the words bill and Bill. See Blue William.
Willow Tree Coins. An early silver issue for the Colony of Massachusetts. The series consists of a Sixpence and Twelvepence, dated 1652. See Crosby.
Wire Money. A name given to the Maundy money of 1792, engraved by Lewis Pingro, on account of the numerals of value being very thin, like strips of wire.
Wire Money. See Larin.
Witje. A slang term for the current silver ten Cent piece of the Netherlands. It is probably from wit, i.e., white. See Witten.
Witten. The name given to base silver
coins, which originally were issued at Lubeck about 1380, and were copied in Hamburg, Schleswig Holstein, Hanover, Mecklenburg, Pommerania, East Friesland, and other north German provinces. They rapidly became the current money, and were of the value of half a Schilling. There are divisions of half and quarter Witten. The name is a corruption of weiss, given to the coins on account of their white, shiny appearance, and corresponding to the Albus.
In the Low Countries a Witten Pennine of Brabant was issued about 1506, of the value of half a Grote. Under Christina of Sweden and her successors, the Witten was struck for Stettin, Stralsund, and Wismar; it was equal to the one one hundred and ninety-second of the Riksdaler.
Wokye. See Kesme.
Wolsey's Groat. A name given to the Groat struck by Cardinal Thomas Wolsey at York, when Archbishop of that diocese. On this coin he placed the Cardinal's hat under the shield, and the letters T and W on the sides of same.
This act was accounted illegal and treasonous, and one of the articles included in the bill of impeachment against Wolsey in 1530 was on account "of his pompous and presumptuous mind he hath enterprised to join and imprint the Cardinal's Hat under your arms in your coin of groats made at your city of York, which like deed hath not yet been seen to have been done by any subject within your realm before this time."
Shakespeare alludes to this in his play of King Henry the Eighth (iii. 2).
Wompam. See Wampum.
Won. The spelling of Warn (q.v.) on certain Korean coins issued during the Russian influence over the country.
Wooden Money, in the form of Exchequer tallies, was current in England prior to the establishment of the Bank of England in 1694. Tallies was the name given to the notched sticks formerly in use for keeping the accounts in the Exchequer. They were square rods of hazel or willow, inscribed on one side with notches, indicating the sum for which the tally was an acknowledgment, and on the other two sides with the same sum in Roman characters. See Bamboo Money.
Wood Geld. This is a term used in old English law and it represented the money paid for the privilege of cutting wood within the forest.
Wood's Coinage. The name given to a copper coinage introduced into Ireland in 1722, which caused great dissatisfaction, although the coins were of superior workmanship to the English coins of the same reign. As the want of copper coin had long been felt in that countrv, the Duchess of Kendall obtained from Sunderland a patent for coining half Pence and Farthings to the value of £108,000. This patent was subsequently sold to William Wood, an iron-master aud mine proprietor, who, under the vice-royalty of the
Duke of Grafton, proceeded to strike the coins and introduced them into the country.
Sir Isaac Newton was at that time the master of the mint, and, according to his statement, Wood appears to liave carried out his contract faithfully, but the Irish people raised a clamor against the new coinage, and Dean Swift, in the Drapiers' Letters, poured forth his sarcasm concerning them. Cartaret, then Lord Lieutenant, offered a reward of £300 for the discovery of the author of these invectives, but without success. Harding, the printer of the Drapiers' Letters, was apprehended, but the grand jury threw otit the bill, and themselves lodged a protest against tlie coins, which protest was drawn up by Dean Swift himself.
It was now seen that the only way to put down the dissatisfaction was to cancel the patent; this was accordiugly done, and to compensate Wood, a pension of £3000
was granted to him in 1725. For an extended account of these coins see a paper contributed by Philip Nelson to the British Numismatic Journal (i. 201-211).
Wreath Cent. The popular name for the second type of copper Cents issued by the Government of the United States in 1793. It was the successor of the Chain Cent (q.v.).
Wu Fen Chien. See Yu Chia Ch' ien.
Wu Tchu, or Wu Shu. A round Chinese copper coin, bearing the inscription in two characters, 5 tchus, on either side of the central hole. This coin was the standard of the Han dynasty, and supplanted the Pan Liang {q.v.) in B.C. 118, and remained in circulation until A.D. 618.
Wyn. An obsolete English slang term for a Penny. See Flag.