Of coins -- "plug", verb: 1837; also its dual meaning

[Joel S. Berson]

(1)  Previously I had asserted that "plug", verb,
lacked any definition related to coins, and
provided two, 1785 for "restore to true value"
and 1789 for "debase".  ("Plugged", adj, exists
in both senses also.)  The following quotation is
somewhat later, but describes how coins were
plugged to debase them.  (I decided to search for
plugged + Johannes/Joannes/Joe, since the (gold)
Johannes was perhaps the most valuable coin circulating among the English.)

1837 -- The West Indies: the natural and physical
history of the Windward and leeward colonies , by
Sir Andrew Halliday (London: John William Parker, 1837); Page 192.  GBooks.

In 1808, the attention of the Court of Policy was
called to the condition of the then circulating
medium, which consisted of gold Joes, or
Johannes, in almost every instance mutilated, and
plugged up with copper or brass, gilt over, so
that in many pieces the gold they contained was
not of more value than half the amount they represented.

(2)  In the early 1800s "to plug" appears with
both meanings.  Victor gave a quotation from 1822
for the sense "debase".  The following has the sense "restore".

1833 -- Four years' residence in the West Indies:
during the years 1826, 7, 8, and 9 ... attributed
to Frederic William Naylor Bayley (London:
William Kidd, 1833), Page 477.  GBooks.

A Joe, value £3 12s. has a G stamped in the
middle of the face side. A Joe, value £3 6s. has
a G stamped in three places, near the edge of the
face side. When a Joe is plugged, the initials of
the workman's name are stamped upon the plug.

(You ask, why were these coins defaced?  My guess
-- foreign gold coins were no longer legal
tender, and were supposed to be sent to the Mint
as bullion in exchange for an equal value of U.S.
gold coin.  Stamping did not alter the weight,
and my next guess is that the stamps were certifications of the values.)

Joel

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