A gold coin of Portugal, worth about eight dollars. See also HALF-JOE.
1762. A Johannes or Gold Coin of Portugal shall not weigh less than Eighteen Pennyweight ten Grains, an Half Johannes not less than Nine Pennyweights and five Grains.—Act of the Great and General Court of Mass.: Boston Ev. Post, March 16.
1765.
| Into the L … rs hands [full] many a Jo | |
| We’ve slily put, that so their tongues might go. | |
Id., Oct. 14. |
1765. Be it enacted,… that one guinea shall be valued at Twenty-eight shillings,… a Double Johannes or gold coin of Portygal … at four pounds sixteen shillings.—‘New Hampshire Prov. Papers,’ vii. 77. (N.E.D.)
1766. Lost, a green worsted Purse, with a Johannes, some Dollars, &c., in it.—Advt., Mass. Gazette, Feb. 6.
1769. The man missed a Johannes, four half Johannes, and two half Pistereens.—Boston News-Letter, March 23, Suppl.
1784. There will be taught privately, for One Half Johannes, a late invented system of the Short Hand.—Virginia Journal, Dec. 16.
1786. Should it rain millions of joes into your chimnies, on your present system of expenses, you would still have no money.—American Museum, v. 263/2 (Dec. 14) (1789).
1788. One vessel, after being detained, was released, the Captain paying 27 joes.—Maryland Journal, March 25.
1788. A considerable number of base Johannes have lately been brought [to Philadelphia] from the state of Massachusetts.—Mass. Spy, July 3.
1791. If he has nothing but Johannes, he will often fall among those where he can make use of them.—Id., April 28.
1797. My mate having 32 joes in his chest, they forcibly took that also.—Gazette of the U.S., Phila., April 7.
1825. She is coming this way; joes to coppers, that she speaks to me, now, though we have been at loggerheads, for a twelvemonth.—John Neal, ‘Brother Jonathan,’ ii. 337.
1827. Two young men found hid in the earth a number of gold coins, consisting of joes, half joes, &c., such as were in circulation among the French soldiers during the Revolutionary war.—Corr. from Lynchburg, Va.: Mass. Spy, May 23.
1870. Jo is a Portuguese coin of eight dollars, common in this country at one period.—G. T. Curtis, ‘Life of Daniel Webster,’ i. 586 n.
