A bodle or boddle or bodwell, also known as a half groat or Turner, was a Scottish copper coin, of less value than a bawbee, worth about one-sixth of an English penny. They were first issued under Charles I, and were minted until the coronation of Anne. Its name may derive from Bothwell (a mint-master).
It is mentioned in one of the songs of Joanna Baillie:
Black Madge, she is prudent, has sense in her noddle Is douce and respectit; I carena a bodle.
The use of the word survives in the anglicised phrase "not to care a bodle", which Brewer glosses as "not to care a farthing". Something similar appears in Burns' Tam o' Shanter (line 110), it is also mentioned:
Fair play, he car'd na deils a boddle (He cared not devils a bodle) __NOTOC__ Gallery
See also
Plack Pound Scots Scottish coinage
References
MacKay, Charles – A Dictionary of Lowland Scotch (1888) Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable
External links Elks, Ken. Coinage of Great Britain