Extensive Definition
A moidore is a Portuguese
gold
coin, minted from 1640 to 1732. The moidore was
current in western
Europe and the West Indies,
particularly Barbados, for a
long period after it ceased to be struck. It was the principal coin
current in Ireland at the
beginning of the 18th
century, and spread to the west of England.
The name moidore is derived from Portuguese moeda
de ouro, which literally meant "golden coin".
There is reference to the moidore in the John
Masefield poem 'Cargoes' - 'Stately Spanish galleon coming from
the Isthmus - Dipping through the tropics by the palm green shores,
With a cargo of diamonds, emeralds, amythysts, topazes, and
cinnamon, and gold moidores.'
There is also reference to the moidore in the
book Gulliver's
Travels by Jonathan
Swift - 'He, who apprehended I could not live a month, was
ready enough to part with me, and demanded a thousand pieces of
gold, which were ordered him on the spot, each piece being about
the bigness of eight hundred moidores...'
References
moidore in German: Moidore
moidore in Italian: Moidore