Ducat

The name of a foreign coin. The ducat, or sequin, was originally a gold coin of the middle ages, apparently a descendant from the bezant of the Greek-Roman Empire. For many centuries it constituted the principal international currency, being intended, or supposed, to be made of pure gold, though subsequently settled at a basis a little below. It is now nearly obsolete in every part of the world. Its average value is about $2.26 of our money. It is said they appeared earliest in Venice, and that they bore the following motto: Sit tibi, Christe, datus, quern tu regis, iste Ducatus (Let this Duchy which thou rulest be dedicated to thee, O Christ)— whence the name ducat. The silver ducat was formerly a coin* of Naples, weighing three hundred. and forty-eight grains, eight hundred and forty-two thousandths fine; consequent value, in our money, about eighty-one cents; but it now exists only as a money of account.