Word of the Day -- Coat of Plates

A coat of plates is a form of torso armour consisting of metal plates sewn or riveted inside a cloth or leather garment.

16th century Jack of plate consisting of iron plates sewn to a leather jerkin. "Jack" was a late-medieval name for jacket.

The coat of plates makes a fairly brief appearance in the history of European armour during the era of transitional armour, during a portion of the 14th century. The coat of plates was normally worn with a mail hauberk and a helmet.

The plates number anywhere from eight or ten to the hundreds depending on their size. The plates overlap, usually only enough to guarantee full coverage even when moving around and fighting. The coat of plates is similar to several other armours such as lamellar, scale and brigandine. Unlike scale armour which has plates on the outside or splint armour in which plates can be inside or outside, a coat of plates has the plates on the inside of the foundation garment. It is generally distinguished from a brigandine by having larger plates, though there may be no distinction in some examples.

Source: Wikipedia