Obs. Also 7 cardicue, -akew, -ecue, -ekue, -eque, -ecew, -escue. [a. F. quart d’écu quarter of an écu (usually englished ‘crown’).] An old French silver coin, worth 1/4 of the gold écu, or 15 sous tournois.
In 1580, when the silver quart d’écu was first struck, the value of the gold écu is said to have been about 8/6 (see Larousse s.v. Ecu), whence the cardecu would be worth about 2/11/2 by a gold standard. English writers of 17th c. make it about 1/6.
1605. Tryall Chev., III. i. in Bullen, O. Pl. (1884), III. 305. There’s a Cardicue to wash downe melancholy.
1606. Chapman, Mons. D’Olive, Plays (1873), I. 202. I could neuer yet finger one Cardicue of her bountie.
1611. Coryat, Crudities, 69. I compounded with them for a cardakew.
1662. Fuller, Worthies, I. 95. In the Court of France, the Kings Jester moved to have … a Cardescue of every one who carried a Watch about him, and cared not how he employed his Time.
1727. W. Mather, Yng. Man’s Comp., 236. Silver … Old Cardecus … Value…. 1l. 06s. 01 d.
1819. Scott, Ivanhoe, xxxii. The bunch of them were not worth a cardecu.
