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1478 Rolls of Parl.: Edward IV (Electronic ed.) Parl. Jan. 1478 §27. m. 5 That no goldsmyth..put to sale, any maner of base gold under the fynesse of .xviij. carettes.

c1547 Vox Populi vi, in J. Skelton Poet. Wks. (1843) II. 407 The coyne yt is so scante..But even as myche to base.

1611 R. Cotgrave Dict. French & Eng. Tongues at Argent Silver..twelue grains baser than Argent le Roy.

1660 in J. D. Marwick Extracts Rec. Burgh Glasgow (1881) II. 439 All sort of such bais copper coyne.

1725 J. Swift Wood the Iron-monger in Wks. (1735) II. 364 They search't his Pockets on the Place, And found his Copper all was base.

1771 R. C. Nicholas Let. 4 Nov. in F. Mason John Norton & Sons (1968) 109 There is a good deal of base coin circulating amongst us.

1855 T. B. Macaulay Hist. Eng. III. 215 Persons who refused the base money were arrested.

1864 Daily Tel. 28 Nov. Utterers of base coin have a trick of passing a bad shilling between two good ones.

1911 Encycl. Brit. XIX. 887/1 This base coinage..ceases about 450 b.c., when the Mytilenaean silver begins.

1976 R. W. Heinze Proclam. Tudor Kings viii. 237 By the middle of June the coining of base money was temporarily stopped.

2007 G. S. S. Brard East of Indus iii. 27 People could easily pass the base coins to you if you were not watchful.