Quoins

Quoins (an old variant spelling of "coin," from Lat. cuneus, a wedge), in architecture, the term for the external angle of a building, generally applied to the ashlar masonry employed to stop the rubble masonry or brickwork of the wall at the angles, as also of buttresses, doorways or projecting features. In Saxon work the quoins were built with large stones laid horizontally and vertically in alternate courses, technically known as "long and short" work. Sometimes, to give greater importance to the angles of towers, the quoin stones are rusticated, and this treatment is found extensively employed in ancient German towns. At Eastbury Manor House in Essex, built in brick, the quoins at the angles of the walls, doorway and windows were plastered in imitation of stonework.