Of coins -- 1748 sweating; 1773: sweater; 1797: sweated, to sweat, plugger, plugged

[Joel S. Berson]

(1)  Sweating, 1748:

According to private letters from Dublin, by the last Mail, they are
still under great Uneasiness there, in Reference to some bad
Practices about the Coin, more especially Guineas, for filing,
sweating, and counterfeiting of which, a Woman, who was lately
condemned to be burnt, has received her Pardon, upon Condition that
she transports herself ...

Boston Post-Boy, published as Boston Post Boy.; Date: 05-23-1748;
Issue: 705; Page: [1]; col. 1.

"sweating", noun, sense 4, antedates OED2 1785-- (Grose).
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(2)  Sweater, 1773:

LONDON, July 24.
Extract of a letter from Sheffield, in Yorkshire.
...
The clippers, coiners, and sweaters, have for a long time left us
without one good guinea in the country.

Boston Post-Boy, published as Boston Post Boy.; Date: 09-20-1773;
Issue: 840; Page: [1]; col. 2.  EAN

"sweater", noun, sense 6, antedates OED2  1845--.
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(3)  Plugger, sweated, plugged, 1797.

... on this account, it was principally that he was desirous of
substituting a fair and honest medium of commerce; he did not
apprehend that the clippers, sweaters, and pluggers, would be able to
make an early depredation on the new coin, but if they did, the law
might declare a remedy, for example, a clipped eagle, should not be a
legal tender, it might be made to repass through the mint, and so of
the others: he thought sweated or plugged coin would be as easily
detected and the case of detection, would deter from the practice.

Norwich [Conn.] Packet; Date: 12-26-1797; Volume: XXIV; Issue: 1241;
Page: [2]; col. 4.  EAN

Eight days earlier in Time Piece, published as The Time Piece [New
York]; Date: 12-18-1797; Volume: II; Issue: 41; Page: [2]; col.
3.  But portions of that text are unclear.

"plugger", noun, sense 1, antedates OED3 (December 2008), 1842--.

"sweated", adj., sense 3, "Of gold coins: Lightened by friction or
attrition", antedates OED2 1869--.

"plugged", adj., sense 2, interdates OED3 July 2009 sense 2, 1773 (my
earlier discovery) -- 1822 (Victor's) -- 1883 (OED3's earliest)
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(4)  To sweat, 1797:

Our own gold, the gentleman said, would not for a long time be either
clipped or sweated; but when it was, it might be returned to he Mint
to be re-coined; so that there would be a constant routine of
sweating, clipping and coining.

Philadelphia Gazette, published as The Philadelphia Gazette &
Universal Daily Advertiser; Date: 12-16-1797; Volume: XIV; Issue:
2847; Page: [2]; col. 1.

"sweat", verb, sense 15, interdates 1796 (earliest apart from
reference to Grose's "sweating", noun) -- 1865.
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Joel

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