cash3 (kash)

[An E. corruption of an E. Ind. word, Telugu and Canarese kāsu, Tamil kās, a small copper coin, also coin-money in general. The Pg. caixa, a name applied to tin coins found by the Portuguese at Malacca in 1511, brought thither from the Malabar coast in India, is perhaps the same word, accom. to Pg. caixa, a case, box, chest, also a cashier, = E. cash2 = case2, q. v.] 1. The name given by foreigners to the only coin in use among the Chinese, and called by them tsien (pronounced chen). It is a round disk of copper alloy, with a square hole in the middle for convenience in stringing, and is of the value of one tenth to one fourteenth of a cent. The characters above and below the square hole indicate the reign in which the coin was cast; those on each side (reading from right to left) are called t'ung pao, and mean current coin, or money. A string Lung-K'ing (1567-73), the Thinking of the reine last but four of the Ming dynasty. (Size of the original.) 843