THE COIN COLLECTOR - World eBook Library

THE COLLECTOR SERIES
denomination of Scotland under James VI., Charles I.,
&c., and existing in the unit, the half, and the multiples
up to forty. (Comp. Turner.) The so-called gold
penny of Henry III. (of 1257), of which only four spe-
cimens are known, is of 24-carat gold.
Piece de pla'mr—A coin struck for a special purpose
or in a superior metal or denomination in very limited
numbers. Examples are not unfrequent in the Euro-
pean series, and the practice seems to have been recog-
nised by the Greeks, whose silver decadrachms and
dodecadrachms were probably not intended for common
currency. There is especially the twenty-stater piece in
gold of Eukratides, king of Bactria, belonging to this
category.
Piefort or Piedfort—Pieces of money struck on an
unusually thick flan of metal as proofs or patterns ; the
practice was not unknown to the Romans, and in the
mediaeval series specimens occur in the twelfth and
thirteenth centuries. There are also deniers and doubles
tournois of Henry III. and IV. and of Louis XIII. of
France, struck in this manner, and of the bronze money
projected for the second French Republic, 1848, &c.
Under the system pursued by the foreign numis-
matists, the dick or thick money, as distinguished from
the broad, is often described as piefort. (See Hazlitt,
" Cat. of Denom.," in v.)
Pierced—Perforated for the purpose of suspension
Fr. troue. The English touch-money of Charles II.,
;