[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Studies](https://indike.org/pramana/ins) › [Reference works](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference) › [Hobson-Jobson: A Glossary of Colloquial Anglo-Indian Words and Phrases, and of Kindred Terms, Etymological, Historical, Geographical and Discursive](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.yule-burnell-1886) › c10.15867 # Hobson-Jobson: A Glossary of Colloquial Anglo-Indian Words and Phrases, and of Kindred Terms, Etymological, Historical, Geographical and Discursive c10.15867 Hobson-Jobson: A Glossary of Colloquial Anglo-Indian Words and Phrases, and of Kindred Terms, Etymological, Historical, Geographical and Discursive c10.15867 - **Language:** English ### [c10.15867](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.yule-burnell-1886.c10.15867) XERAFINE, XERAFIM, &c., s. The word in this form represents a silver coin formerly current at Goa and several other Eastern ports, in value somewhat less than 1s. 6d. It varied in Portuguese currency from 300 to 360 reis. But in this case as in so many others the term is a corruption applied to a degenerated value. The original is the Arabic ashrafī (see ASHRAFEE) (or sharīf, ‘noble’—compare the medieval coin so called), which was applied properly to the gold dīnār, but was also in India, and still is occasionally by natives, applied to the gold mohur. Ashrafī for a gold dīnār (value in gold about 11s. 6d.) occurs frequently in the ‘1001 Nights,’ as Dozy states, and he gives various other quotations of the word in different forms (pp. 353-354; \[Burton, Ar. Nights, x. 160, 376\]). Aigrefin, the name of a coin once known in France, is according to Littré also a corruption of ashrafī. - [Previous: c10.15866](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.yule-burnell-1886.c10.15866) - [Next: c10.15868](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.yule-burnell-1886.c10.15868) - [Up: c10](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.yule-burnell-1886.c10) --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.yule-burnell-1886.c10.15867](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.yule-burnell-1886.c10.15867) · Pramāṇa