PIN MONEY.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 6072, 8 January 1898, Page 3

PIN MONEY.

The word pin money is not much used nowadays, and when ifc is, is apt to be used loosely. It is often employed to mean an allowance by a father or husband for a daughter's or wife's extra expenses. Bufc its proper significance is a woman's allowance for all her personal outlay, whatever it may be. The origin of the term is somewhat singular. Long after the invention of pins, in the fourteenth century, the maker was permitted to sell them openly the first and second of January only, when the court and city ladies crowded to the shops to buy them, having been provided by their fathers and husbands with money for the purpose. Affcer pins had become plentiful and cheap, women spent their money for other things; but pin money remained in vogue. The opinion, often expressed, that pins were invented in France during the reign of Francis I and introduced into England by Catherine Howard, fifth wife of Henry VIII, is erroneous. In 1347, 200 years before the death of Francis, 12,000 pins were delivered from the English royal wardrobe for the use of Princess Joan, and fifty-three years later the Duchesse d'Orleans purchased of Jehan le Breconnier, a pin-maker of Paris, several thousands of long and short pins, besides 500 dozen of the English fashion, showing that pins were not only manufactured but had gained a wide reputation abroad during the reign of Henry IV. It is estimated that hundreds of millions of pins are used annually.