Obs. The English name for the French coin called ECU, ESCU.
1599. B. Jonson, Ev. Man out of Hum., II. i. Car. You should give him a French crown for it.
1607. Topsell, Serpents (1658), 715. The powder or dust whereof must be the full weight of a golden groat, or as we say a French Crown.
Comb.
1590. Shaks., Mids. N., I. i. 97. Your French-crowne colour’d beard.
b. Punningly, with reference to the baldness produced by the ‘French disease.’
1590. Shaks., Mids. N., I. ii. 99.
