Specie definitions and example sentences on Wordnik

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Definitions (11)

American Heritage Dictionary (4)

noun Coined money; coin.
idiom in specie In coin.
idiom in specie In a similar manner; in kind: repaid the offense in specie.

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Century Dictionary (4)

As a Latin noun, used in the phrase in specie: In kind. So a lion is a perfect creature in himself, though it be less than that of a buffalo, or a rhinocerote. They differ but in specie; either in the kind is absolute; both have their parts, and either the whole. B. Jonson, Discoveries. You must pay him in specie, Madam; give him love for his wit. Dryden, Mock Astrologer, v. 1. Uneconomical application of punishment, though proper, perhaps, as well in specie as in degree. Bentham, Introd. to Morals and Legislation, xvi. 54, note.
In coin. See def. 2. Hence, as an English noun
Coin; metallic money; a medium of exchange consisting of gold or silver (the precious metals) coined by sovereign authority in pieces of various standard weights and values, and of minor coins of copper, bronze, or some other cheap or base metal: often used attributively. The earliest coinage of specie is attributed to the Lydians, about the eighth century b. c. Previously, and long afterward in many countries, pieces of silver and gold (the latter only to a small extent) were passed by weight in payments, as lumps of silver are still in China. The use of specie as a measure of price is based upon the intrinsic value of the precious metals as commodities, which has diminished immensely since ancient times, but is comparatively stable for long periods under normal circumstances. In modern civilized communities specie or bullion is largely used by banks as a basis or security for circulating notes (bank-notes) representing it. In times of great financial disturbance this security sometimes becomes inadequate from depletion or through excessive issues of notes, and a general suspension of specie payments takes place, followed by great depreciation of the paper money. General suspensions of specie payments occurred in the United States in 1837, 1857, and 1861, the last, due to the civil war, continuing till 1879. Specie payments by British banks were suspended by law, in consequence of the French wars, from 1797 to 1823, but were actually resumed by the Bank of England in 1821. Similar interruptions of solvency have occurred in the other European countries, resulting in Austria and Russia in an apparently permanent substitution of depreciated paper money for specie in ordinary use and reckoning.

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Can there be a more convincing proof that the currency of the country has been unduly drained away, and that the present monetary system, which forbids any extension of it in paper when the specie is abstracted, is based on a wrong foundation? — Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 61, No. 378, April, 1847
Besides other valuable articles and specie, they found in her diamonds to the amount of four millions of dollars. — The Pirates Own Book
Love and marriage was a specie ** specie ? — Corpus of a Siam Mosquito
Law's proscription of specie, then of jewels, so as to have only paper in — Court Memoirs of France Series — Complete
A month after, the value of the specie was diminished; then the whole of the coin was re-cast. — Memoirs of Louis XIV and His Court and of the Regency — Complete

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specie

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