[ad. (ultimately) Tamil kāsu (‘or perhaps some Konkani form of it’), name of a small coin, or weight of money:—Skr. karsha ‘a weight of silver or gold equal to 1/400 of a tulā’ (Williams); Singhalese kāsi coin. The early Portuguese writers represented the native word by cas, casse, caxa, the Fr. by cas, the Eng. by cass: the existing Pg. caixa and Eng. cash are due to a natural confusion with CASH sb.1 From an early date the Portuguese applied caixa (probably on the same analogy) to the small money of other foreign nations, such as that of the Malay Islands, and especially the Chinese, which was also naturally made into cash in English. (Yule.)]
A name applied by Europeans to various coins of low value in the East Indies and China: esp.
a. The basis of the monetary system that prevailed in Southern India up to 1818; in this system 80 cash = 1 fanam, 42. fanams = 1 star pagoda (about 7s. 8d.).
b. The Chinese le and tsien, coins made of an alloy of copper and lead, with a square hole in the center whereby they are strung on cords; of these 1000 made a tael or liang.
1598. trans. Linschoten’s Voy., 34 (Y.). Certaine copper mynt called Caixa … in the middle whereof is a hole to hang it on a string.
1699. Dampier, Voy., II. I. iv. 72. A fine Coat, or about 1000 Cash, as ’tis called, which is a summ about the value of a Dollar. Ibid., vii. 131. The Money-changers are here [Achin], as at Toquin, most Women. These sit in the Markets … with leaden Money called Cash, which is a name that is generally given to small Money in all these Countries: but the Cash here is … Lead, or Block Tin.
1727. A. Hamilton, New Acc. E. Ind., II. xli. 109. At Atcheen they have a small Coin of Leaden Money called Cash.
a. 1711. C. Lockyer, Acc. Trade in India, 8 (Y.). Doodos and Cash are Copper Coins.
1718. Propag. Gospel in East, II. 52 (Y.). Cass, a very small coin; eighty whereof make one Fano.
1766. J. H. Grose, Voy. E. Ind., I. 282 (Y.). 80 casches make a fanam or 3d. sterling.
1790. Cornwallis, Lett. to E. J. Holland (Y.). I think that every Cash … of that ill-judged saving may cost the Company a crore of rupees.
1871. Mateer, Travancore, 109. The smallest coin in use is the copper ‘kāsu’…, called by Europeans ‘cash,’ equal in value to about one-nineteenth of a penny.
b. 1750. Beawes, Lex Mercat. (1752), 793. The Caches (a Copper Money) of Hainam and Canton.
1771. J. R. Forster, trans. Osbeck’s Voy., I. 262. Kas, which the Chinese call Lai, is the only current coin which is struck in China.
1779. Forrest, Voy. N. Guinea, 280. The China cash at Magindano … have holes as in China.
1875. Jevons, Money (1878), 58. The Chinese cash are well known to be round disks of a kind of brass, with a square hole in the centre.
