A bodle or boddle or bodwell, also known as a half groat or Turner, was a Scottish copper coin, of less value than a bawbee, worth about one-sixth of an English penny. They were first issued under Charles I, and were minted until the coronation of Anne.1 Its name may derive from Bothwell (a mint-master).2
It is mentioned in one of the songs of Joanna Baillie:
Black Madge, she is prudent, has sense in her noddle
Is douce and respectit; I carena a bodle.
The use of the word survives in the anglicised phrase "not to care a bodle",2 which Brewer glosses as "not to care a farthing". Something similar appears in Burns' Tam o' Shanter (line 110), it is also mentioned:
Fair play, he car'd na deils a boddle (He cared not devils a bodle)
Gallery
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Turner or Bodle of Charles I, c.1642-1650 AD -
Turner or Bodle of Charles II, c. 1663-1668 AD -
Turner or Bodle of Charles II, c. 1677-1679 AD -
Bodle or Turner of William and Mary, 1692
References
References
- "Scottish National Dictionary: Bodle". Dictionaries of the Scots Language. 2005. Retrieved 28 January 2023.
A copper coin of Charles I., Charles II., William and Mary and William III., known also as Turners or Twopenny pieces, equivalent to one sixth of an English penny.
- One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Bodle". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 4 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 110.
- MacKay, Charles – A Dictionary of Lowland Scotch (1888)
- Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable