Brewer:
Specie, Species means simply what is visible. As things are distinguished by their visible forms, it has
come to mean kind or class. As drugs and condiments at one time formed the most important articles of
merchandise, they were called species - still retained in the French épices, and English spices. Again, as
bank-notes represent money, money itself is called specie, the thing represented.

A word whose meaning has changed:
specie
n.
abl. of L species: used in E from occurrence in the phrase (paid) in specie6 coin, as distinguished from paper money; also, coin made of precious, as distinguished from base, metal
in specie
1 in kind
2 in coin