Definition of "specie"

I received one month's pay in specie while on the march to Virginia, in the year 1781, and except that, I never received any pay worth the name while I belonged to the army.

1830, Joseph Plumb Martin, “Ch. IX”, in A Narrative of Some of the Adventures, Dangers and Sufferings of a Revolutionary Soldier

‘It was not money or specie he thought himself hunting!’

1982, Lawrence Durrell, Constance (Avignon Quintet), Faber & Faber, published 2004, page 805

“Dick” Counterfly had absquatulated swiftly into the night, leaving his son with only a pocketful of specie and the tender admonition, “Got to ‘scram,’ kid — write if you get work.”

2006, Thomas Pynchon, Against the Day, Vintage, published 2007, page 8