Obs. [f. SPAN sb.1 or v.1 and COUNTER sb.3 Cf. SPAN-FARTHING.] A game in which the object of one player was to throw his counters so close to those of his opponent that the distance between them could be spanned with the hand.
Common in the early part of the 17th c.
1566. Drant, Horace, Sat., III. G vj. A man that … is gladde To playe at quoytes, or spancounter.
1593. Shaks., 2 Hen. VI., IV. ii. 106. Henry the fift, (in whose time boyes went to Span-counter for French Crownes).
1600. Nashe, Summer’s Last Will, 1589, Wks. (Grosart), VI. 149. I was close vnder a hedge, or vnder a barne wall, playing at spanne Counter, or Iacke in a boxe.
1647. Peacham, Worth of a Penny, 32. I would wish them to venture at Span-counter and Dust-point with schole-boyes.
1675. Cotton, Burlesque upon B., 50. To play at Cat, at Trap, or … Span-counter.
[1815. Scott, Guy M., xii. Rich enough to play at span-counter with moidores.]
