coin of the realm
Americannoun
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Anyway, if the debt should finally sink the public credit, Smith prescribed an open and avowed national bankruptcy rather than the treacherous debasement of the coin of the realm.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 21, 2026
Earn some coin of the realm in this week’s Slate News Quiz.
From Slate ● Oct. 4, 2024
Hollywood’s coin of the realm is not work, but employment; not talent, but success; not pictures, but the power they imply, or fail to.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 8, 2024
Trivia, the coin of the realm in pop culture writing, is spilled here in abundance.
From New York Times ● Dec. 6, 2022
The children used them for trading purposes, for games and coin of the realm.
From "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" by Betty Smith
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
