Hist. Also 7 turno(u)r. [Etymology not ascertained: perh. an alteration of TOURNOIS, as the coin has considerable resemblance to the double tournois of copper current in France in the 17th cent.; cf. the Irish TURNEYS.] A small copper coin, current in Scotland in the 17th c., called also a twopenny piece or bodle, valued (when pure) at one-sixth of an English penny. See also TURNOVER.
They were originally coined by the Earl of Stirling c. 1623. Counterfeits were also fabricated by gipsies: see quots.
1631. Act Privy Council, in Cochran-Patrick, Rec. Coinage Scot. (1876), II. 28. It is our pleasure that yow giue order … for calling in of the copper money callit Turnours.
1635. Brereton, Trav. (Chetham Soc.), 188. Coins current in Scotland—In Copper, Turners 6 to one penny English or 12 Scottish.
1640. Records of Elgin (New Spald. Cl.), I. 266. Geving … thrie dolloris in siluer and receaving back … sex dolloris in turnoris for the samyn.
1642. in Row, Hist. Kirk (Wodrow Soc.), p. xviii. Four pund weght of turnoris. Ibid., p. xix. Four markis of turnouris quhilk was gottin out of the Coinze-house.
a. 1670. Spalding, Troub. Chas. I. (1850), I. 235. King Charles turnouris, stricken be the Erll of Striviling… wes, be proclamatioun … cryit doun fra tua penneis to ane penny; King James turnouris to pas for tua penneis, becauss thay war no less worth; and the kaird turnouris simpliciter dischargeit as falss cungzie.
1786. Cardonnel, Numism. Scot., 34. After 1660, we hear of two pennies, bodles, and turners.
1842. Penny Cycl., XXIII. 60/1. s.v. Stirling, Wm. Earl of, He obtained the privilege of coining for Scotland a sort of base copper-money, called ‘turners.’
1882. Francisque-Michel, Crit. Inquir. Sc. Lang., vi. 123. Charles I. (1625–1649) continued the coinage of the turner. The name was revived and applied to a similar piece coined after the Restoration, in the beginning of Charles II.’s reign.
1893. Antiquary, March, 105. Coins found in St. Queran’s Well 1869. Scottish … Charles II., Turners and Half Turners.
