moidore

A moidore is a Portuguese gold coin, minted from 1640 to 1732. The moidore was current in western Europe and the West Indies, particularly Barbados, for a long period after it ceased to be struck. It was the principal coin current in Ireland at the beginning of the 18th century, and spread to the west of England.

The name moidore is derived from Portuguese moeda de ouro, which literally means "golden coin".

There is reference to the moidore in the John Masefield poem 'Cargoes' - 'Stately Spanish galleon coming from the Isthmus - Dipping through the tropics by the palm green shores, With a cargo of diamonds, emeralds, amythysts, topazes, and cinnamon, and gold moidores.'

There is also reference to the moidore in the book Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift - 'He, who apprehended I could not live a month, was ready enough to part with me, and demanded a thousand pieces of gold, which were ordered him on the spot, each piece being about the bigness of eight hundred moidores...'

Additionally, there is at least one reference in Melville's Moby Dick: 'I have seen doubloons now before in my voyagings; your doubloons of old Spain; your doubloons of Peru, your doubloons of Chili, your doubloons of Bolivia, your doubloons of Popayan; with plenty of gold moidores and pistoles, and joes, and half joes, and quarter joes.'

A coin weight for a Moidore

References

• This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica, Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.

This coin-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v • d • e

This Portugal-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v • d • e