[1614.—"... having been borne in hand by our Sarafes to pay money there."—Foster, Letters, iii. 282. The "Sheriff of Bantam" (ibid. iv. 7) may perhaps be a shroff, but compare Shereef.]
1673.—"It could not be improved till the Governor had released the Shroffs or Bankers."—Fryer, 413.
1697-8.—"In addition to the cash and property which they had got by plunder, the enemy fixed two lacs of rupees as the price of the ransom of the prisoners.... To make up the balance, the Sarráfs and merchants of Nandurbár were importuned to raise a sum, small or great, by way of loan. But they would not consent."—Kháfí Khán, in Elliot, vii. 362.
1750.—"... the Irruption of the Morattoes into Carnatica, was another event that brought several eminent Shroffs and wealthy Merchants into our Town; insomuch, that I may say, there was hardly a Shroff of any Note, in the Mogul empire but had a House in it; in a word, Madrass was become the Admiration of all the Country People, and the Envy of all our European Neighbours."—Letter to a Proprietor of the E. I. Co. 53-54.
1809.—"I had the satisfaction of hearing the Court order them (i.e. Gen. Martin's executors) to pay two lacs and a half to the plaintiff, a shroff of Lucknow."—Ld. Valentia, i. 243.
[1891.—"The banker in Persia is looked on simply as a small tradesman—in fact the business of the Serof is despised."—Wills, in the Land of the Lion and the Sun, 192].
SHROFF, TO, v. This verb is applied properly to the sorting of different rupees or other coins, so as to discard refuse, and to fix the various amounts of discount or agio upon the rest, establishing the value in standard coin. Hence figuratively 'to sift,' choosing the good (men, horses, facts, or what not) and rejecting the inferior.
[1554.—(See under [BATTA], b.)]
1878.—"Shroffing schools are common in Canton, where teachers of the art keep bad dollars for the purpose of exercising their pupils; and several works on the subject have been published there, with numerous illustrations of dollars and other foreign coins, the methods of scooping out silver and filling up with copper or lead, comparisons between genuine and counterfeit dollars, the difference between native and foreign milling, etc., etc."—Giles, Glossary of Reference, 129.
1882.—(The [Compradore]) "derived a profit from the process of shroffing which (the money received) underwent before being deposited in the Treasury."—The Fankwae at Canton, 55.