COIN. This is properly the term for a wedge-shaped die used for stamping money, and so transferred to the money so stamped; hence a piece of money. The form "quoin" is used for the exter nal angle of a building (see Qvo1Ns), and "coign," also a project ing angle, survives in the Shakespearean phrase "a coign of van tage." The older forms of the word are Coyne, quoin and coign, all derived from the Lat. cuneus, a wedge, through the O.Fr. coing and cuigne.