Fwd: "plugged, adj." - Word of the Day from the OED

[Joel S. Berson]

At 2/13/2011 08:10 AM, Victor Steinbok wrote:
>http://goo.gl/rcnDl
>The Merchant's and Shipmaster's Assistant: Containing Information Useful
>to American Merchants, Owners, and Masters of Ships. By Joseph Blunt.
>New York: 1822
>Chapter III. Exchange. p. 66
>>At BARBADOES, accounts are kept as at Jamaica ; Dm the currency is
>>different: --an English guinea passes here legally for £1 10s.
>>Od.--the Portuguese joannes for £5--the doubloon for $16. or £A 10s.
>>Od.--and the moidore for £l 17s. 6d --and all these coins must have
>>the same weight as at Jamaica. The Spanish dollar is current at 6s.
>>3d. Mutilated coins are out of circulation in the British islands,
>>except at Grenada, where half-joannes *plugged* up to 74 dwts. pass
>>for $7 33.
>
>What's particularly interesting about all of these is that none of the
>usage (other than the Bengali dictionary and the Indian court case)
>implies in any way that the "plugged" coins are counterfeit or
>worthless. They are standard albeit with possibly lower values than
>other coins. So something is going on here that the OED description is
>missing.

In the example above surely the half-joannes are
altered, and such alteration was
counterfeiting.  (For example, colonial laws
against counterfeiting coins use the word
"altered".)  Coins did not have to be worthless
to be counterfeit; they could be altered by
clipping -- reducing their weight -- or by
debasing -- adding or replacing weight in the form of a less valuable metal.

>"half-joannes *plugged* up to 74 dwts. pass for $7 33.

This must mean that weight was added ("up to" 74
dwts) in the form of some less valuable metal,
and the coins were passed for a larger amount
($7.33) than a half-joannes was legitimately
worth.  Joannes (or Johanneses) were gold (and
the OED has an 1839 quotation describing it as
gold).  "dwt" is the abbreviation for
"pennyweight" (according to the OED 1/20 troy
ounce, about 1.56 grams).  Counterfeiting such a
valuable coin must have been seen as potentially profitable.

As Jesse knows, I participate in the class of
those uncertain about participles vs. adjectives,
but think the "plugged" here is the participle.

Joel

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org