subs. (costermongers’).—A five-shilling piece. [Hotten and Barrère trace it to the French couronne, Spanish and Italian corona; it is in all probability a mispronunciation of the English word ‘crown.’]
ENGLISH SYNONYMS. Bull, or bull’s-eye; cartwheel, coachwheel, or simply wheel; tusheroon; dollar; thick ’un (obsolete, the term being now applied to a sovereign); case; caser; decus.
The nearest French equivalent, a five franc piece, is called un roue de derrière (literally ‘a hind wheel,’ and corresponding pretty closely to the English WHEEL, CARTWHEEL, and COACHWHEEL); un bouton de guêtre; un blafard de cinq balles; une drille or dringue; une croix (the old six franc piece, in allusion to the cross inscribed on it); une chatte (a piece of six francs: very old; and formerly prostitutes’); une médaille or médaille de St. Hubert (popular); un monarque (popular); un œil de bœuf (= an ox’s eye); un noble étrangère (literary: = a distinguished stranger).
1859. G. W. MATSELL, Vocabulum; or, The Rogue’s Lexicon. Kersey-mere kicksies, any colour, built very slap with the artful dodge; from three CAROON.
