An obsolete English name for the French Ecu (q.v.).

Caxton, in his Dialogues, 1483 (17), mentions "Scutes of the Kyng, " and John Skelton in his tract Why come ye nat to Courtc, 1522 (167), has: "With scutes and crownes of gold I drede we are bought and solde.

At a somewhat later period the word was vaguely used for a coin of small value. Thus, Thomas Nashe, in his Christ's Tears over Jerusalem, 1594 (introd.), says: "Therein I imitate rich men who hailing gathered store of white single money together, eonuerl a number of those small little scutes into greal peeces of gold, such as double Pistols and Port unites. "

In Have with you to Saffron-Walden, 1596, another tract by Nashe, he says : "The diuell a scute had he to pay the reckoning. "