Crossword Genius

Historic coins, encompassing old legal tender? (10)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

solicitous

'tender?' is the definition.
(thesaurus)

'historic coins encompassing old legal' is the wordplay.
'historic coins' becomes 'sous' (sou was a historical French coin).
'encompassing' indicates putting letters inside.
'old' becomes 'o' (common abbreviation eg in OE for Old English).
'legal' becomes 'licit' (similar in meaning).
'o'+'licit'='olicit'
'sous' enclosing 'olicit' is 'SOLICITOUS'.

(Other definitions for solicitous that I've seen before include "Anxious - concerned" , "Showing concerned attention" .)

I've seen this clue in The Guardian.
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