Why Are They Called "India 'Dump' Coins?"

... so what does the term "dump" mean in this context? I guess that is the real question?

I guess my question is rather obtuse, then... I know WHAT it is... I just want to know WHY the term "dump" is used.... I suppose more of an etymology question....

I guess he's asking why the triangular heck are small thick coins called dumps, and which sense of the word "dump" does this come from.

To be honest, I have no idea either (I mean, it makes sense for the "center punched out" dumps, but not for all the others, and the punched centers are rare enough that I doubt they were the inspiration).

I wrote the CCF glossary entry, which in turn was derived from Doty's Numismatic Encyclopedia. Doty does not go into the etymology of the term. But rest assured, it has nothing to do with the modern meaning of "rubbish", which really dates from the mid-19th century; coin collectors and coin-users have been calling any coin that is unusually thick for its size a "dump" since at least the mid-1700s. As noted above, the New South Wales fifteen-pence coin punched out of a Spanish Dollar in 1813 is also universally known as a "dump", and these Australian dumps have never been worthless (to buy one today will cost about as much as a midsized car). The term is also reported to be used for early British copper farthings from the 1700s, though I am not sure people back when those coins were issued were calling them "dumps".

I offer the following suggestions:

- The word may be onomatopoeic: perhaps they are called "dumps" because when you drop one onto a table, it makes a dull "dump" sound, rather than the higher-pitched ringing of a more normal-shaped coin.

- Harking back to the original meaning as noted above, particularly the "unloaded in bulk", a common feature of "dump" coins is that they are crudely and hastily made; large numbers of them would be produced quickly and hurriedly issued or "dumped" into circulation. Thus, "dump" is synonymous with "crudely struck".

Thanks Sap and Anaximander for the interesting insights into the possibilities around the term. I can easily see how the "thump" sound could evolve into the word "dump." As well the comparisons Anaximander makes to a "dumpy" body shape. ;-)

Sap notes that "coin collectors and coin-users have been calling any coin that is unusually thick for its size a 'dump' since at least the mid-1700s...." This is amazing. Could it be that the use of this term originated in Australia? And I wonder if Indian numismatists use the term themselves to describe these coins?

Interesting!

I found this old topic in a search on Indian coins.

To be "dumpy" as Anaxaminder says in his colloquial definition is to be unattractive, but to be dumpy is properly defined as being short and stout. It is a term from the 1750s. So a dump coin is properly described as dumpy.

I think there coins were properly called dump coins using terms at the time. We have generally stopped using the adjective dumpy since then, at least with its old meaning, but the term has stuck with the coins

Ditto, without details, in Wiktionary, etymology 2 ("see dumpling"); I'm not sure what "chuck farthing" is, but "a thick, ill-shapen piece" does sound like an apt description/comparison for the chunky Indian coppers.
I do not know when did the "dump" halfpennies and farthings of 1717-18 (which are indeed somewhat smaller and thicker than earlier and later issues of the same denomination) acquire that nickname, or indeed whether they or the Indian coins got it first.

Note that the "piece left over from a holey dollar" kind of dump is a separate sense (1.14) in Wiktionary, without reference to the Indian coins.

EDIT:
Wiktionary says "short and thick; stout or stocky", which essentially matches, and does suggest that the origin of the coins' nickname probably goes somewhere along that line.