[f. TOUCH v. or sb. + PIECE sb.]
1. A coin or medal (originally a gold angel, in later times specially struck for the purpose in gold or silver) given by the sovereign to each person touched for the ‘king’s evil’ (TOUCH v. 2 b).
1844. Chron. Seasons, II. 26. Touch-pieces were a sort of coins, of which the king, when he touched a person in order to cure the evil, used to hang one round the neck of the patient.
1853. Daily News, 5 Feb., 5/4. He also exhibited the touch pieces which it was the rule for the sovereign to give to the patient when ‘touched’ or ‘healed,’ for the terms appeared to have been used as synonimous [sic]; these were mostly of gold, some, however, being of silver, and some of brass.
1855. Smedley, etc., Occult Sc., 341. The touch-pieces were generally preserved with great care, and worn as amulets.
1908. Athenæum, 20 June, 769/1. There are varieties of gold and silver touch-pieces of the time of James II.
2. A piece of mechanism operated by a touch.
1897. Daily News, 7 June, 6/4. The observer taps a little touch-piece by the side of the instrument, and this movement is conveyed by galvanic wire to the chronograph.
3. A piece of music designed to exhibit the touch of the performer, a toccata. (nonce-use.)
1900. New Cent. Rev., VII. 394. A Toccata (or touch-piece).
