Black saxpence

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The black saxpence (sixpence) was supposed in Scottish superstition to be a magical sixpence given by the Devil in payment for the soul of the person who accepted it. The virtue of this "black" sixpence consisted in its always having a bright sixpence alongside of it; that as soon as it was taken away and spent, it was replaced by another, and so on until the crack of doom.

For similar usages of "Black" in Scottish usage (both Lowland Scots and Scottish Gaelic), please see blackmail (originally a Border Scots term) and Black Watch.