PIEDFORT \pee.AY.for\ n. a specially minted edition of a coin that is much thicker and heavier than normal. Also PIEFORT

Nowadays piedforts are usually made as commemorative editions aimed at collectors. The 1982 silver 20 pence coin in the picture is the first piedfort printed for public consumption in the UK. They must have made quite a few of them, because you can still snap one up on eBay for under 50 bucks.

Interestingly, the piefort spelling is based on a misspelling of the original word that occurred in a famous coin catalog. The catalog was so widely circulated over several decades that the misspelling became an accepted variant.

Coincidentally enough, both spellings of today’s word have more common anagrams that might make them easier to spot in a game…

• I hope you PROFITED from that PIEDFORT you bought way back in 1982.
• Why not melt down your PIEFORT in a FIREPOT and then make two of them?

Just thinking aloud there ;-)

Scrabble players should pay particular heed to the French pronunciation of this word, as I’ve heard more than one player pronounce it as if it was some kind of military fast-food joint. I’d hate to see you embarrass yourself in a television interview about how well educated Scrabble players are(n’t).

ECU \AY.kue or ay.KUE\ n. the name of an old French gold coin, adopted by several others since

Ecu has appeared in many American newspaper crossword puzzles, so it is definitely one the avid solver will need to remember. The sorts of clues you should now be able to quickly decode include…

• Antique French coin
• Calais coin of old
• Coin depicting Louis XVI
• French coin during the Renaissance
• Old coin worth five francs

I’m sure you get the idea.

By the way, if you do decide to go eBay shopping for an ecu, don’t get too excited by all the perfect shiny-looking specimens going for a few bucks. The label on those coins will almost certainly refer to the other ECU (European Currency Unit).

And if that tip saves you a few hundred bucks, I think you definitely owe me another beer!

Collins/CSW/SOWPODS players get to extend today’s word to form another old French coin: the CARDECU or CARDECUE

ASSIGNAT \ass.in.YAH\ n. a paper note issued during the French Revolution that was secured by church properties

When revolutionaries took over France’s government in 1789, they immediately faced an insurmountable debt and were unable to fund their continued work. Talleyrand, a powerful French diplomat at the time, proposed a scheme whereby they would confiscate all of the Vatican’s property and use it to secure a paper bond called an assignat.

Below is an excellent short video explaining how the assignat worked. Or more accurately, why it didn’t…