GROAT, an English money of account, equal to four-pence. Other nations, as the Dutch, Polanders, Saxons, Bohemians, French, &c. have likewise their groats, groots, grôches, gros, &c. In the Saxon times, no silver coin bigger than a penny was struck in England, nor after the conquest, till Edward III.
who, about the year 1351, coined grosses, i. e. groats, or great pieces, which went for 4d. a-piece; and so the matter stood till the reign of Henry VIII. who, in 1504, first coined shillings.