Checquin Pubblico Deposited
are all corruptions of Sequin, the latter being a colloquial form of the Zeechino (q.v.). In Hakluyt's Voyages, 1599 (ii. i. 152), he says, " Euery man a chekin, which is seuen shillings and two pence sterling." Brome, Novella, 1632 (i. 2), uses the term " Here's a thousand checquines."
Massinger, in A Very Woman, 1655 (iii. 1), uses the form " chekeen " and Wheler, in his Journey to Greece, 1682 (vi. 413), has " chequin." Conf. Chickino, infra.
A table adopted in the Province of Mary- land in 1763, as a standard for payments, mentions the Arabian Chequin as equal to 108 pounds of tobacco. By an act of 1781,. after Maryland became a State, fixed val- uations were put on foreign coins, and among others Arabian Chequins are quoted as equal to thirteen shillings and sixpence. See Gubber.
- Frey's Dictionary (American Journal of Numismatics, Vol. 50, 1916)