Sap?que Público Deposited
Is used chiefly by French numismatic writers as an equivalent for the Annamese Cash, of which six hundred are equal to one Qwan.
Yule and Burnell, in Hobson-Jobson, A Glossary of Anglo-Indian Colloquial Words, 1886 (s. v. Sapeca), have the following:
" This word is used at Macao for what we call cash in Chinese currency; and it is the word generally used by French writers for that coin. It is very probably from the Malay sa, i.e., one, and paku, a string or file of the smallest coins called pichis. Sapaku would then properly be a string of one hundred cash, but it is not difficult to perceive that it might through some misunderstanding have been transferred to a single coin. "
Crawfurd, Malay Dictionary, 1852, has: " Paku, a string or file of the small coins called pichis. " See also Indian Antiquary (xxvi. 222) and Zay (pp. 118-122).
- Frey's Dictionary (American Journal of Numismatics, Vol. 50, 1916)