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nest

In England, 15ᵗʰ – 17ᵗʰ centuries, a unit of count used for small metal objects like bits for horses, counters, coffers, etc., = 3.

sources

21 July [1480]. From the ship of Clays Bartoles called George of Danzig. ...

Nicholas Steyne, H[anse], 3½ packs flax, 74 bales flax, 6 barrels pitch, 17 barrels tar, 1 nest ["counters" is added in an auditor's copy], 4 inkle counters, 9 nests of coffers, 5 pullets. 3½ dozen playing-tables, 18 boards for shoemakers, 20 troughs, 7 shocks of soap boxes, 7 nests of chests, 4 inkle chests, 70 pepper querns, 15 shocks of trenchers, 12 bundles bast ropes, 4 red skins, 15 buck skins, 23 ells spruce linen cloth, 1 small bundle raw thread, 2 bundles candlewick, 1 small bundle sewing thread, 6 key-bands, 4 purses, 2 vats beer, 1 firkin spice-bread, 5 pounds 4 ounces amber, £46 13s. 4d.

H. S. Cobb, editor.
The Overseas Trade of London. Exchequer Customs Accounts 1480-1.
London Record Society, 1990.
Page 55, entry 169. The nest occurs frequently in these accounts.

Coffers the nest iii s. iiii d.
Cownters the neste xx s.

From a 1732 copy (British Museum Add. Roll, 16577) of a manuscript by T. Forgon, internally dated 15 July 1507, consisting of a list of customs duties on various articles, as reproduced as Appendix C in Norman Scott Brien Gras, The Early English Customs System, Cambridge (MA): Harvard University Press, 1918, page 696.

Chests...

of Ciprese wood the nest cont 3 chests viij li.

of Spruce or Danske the nest cont 3 chests j li. x. s.

...

Coffers ...

wᵗʰ Iron barrs the nest cont 3 coffers j li. xij s.

plaine [y^e] nest cont iij coffers xiij s. iiij. d.

painted the nest cont three coffers xvj s.

“A Subsidy granted to the King of Tonnage and Poundage and other summes of Money payable upon Merchandize Exported and Imported.”
A statute from the 12th year of Charles II, 1660. The selection is from the Rates of Merchandizes, which is not part of the statute proper but developed from it. Both are printed in:
Statutes of the Realm, Volume 5: 1628-80, John Raithby, editor.
London: 1819. Page 186.