Careful Words

coin (n.)

coin (v.)

  Silver and gold are not the only coin; virtue too passes current all over the world.

Euripides (484-406 b c): oedipus. Frag. 546.

  She pays him in his own coin.

Jonathan Swift (1667-1745): Polite Conversation. Dialogue iii.

Blessing on him who invented sleep,—the mantle that covers all human thoughts, the food that appeases hunger, the drink that quenches thirst, the fire that warms cold, the cold that moderates heat, and, lastly, the general coin that purchases all things, the balance and weight that equals the shepherd with the king, and the simple with the wise.—Jarvis's translation.