English

Noun

fippenny bit ‎(plural fippenny bits)

1. (obsolete, US, Pennsylvania region) The Spanish half real, or one sixteenth of a dollar.

Usage notes

• Before the act of Congress, February 21, 1857, caused the adoption of decimal coins and the withdrawal of foreign coinage from circulation, this coin passed for 6¼ cents, and was called in New England a fourpence ha'penny or fourpence; in New York a sixpence; in Pennsylvania, Virginia, etc., a fip; and in Louisiana, a picayune.