English

Alternative forms

• quarter-farthing

Noun

quarter farthing ‎(plural quarter farthings)

1. (historical of numismatics) A British coin, produced for circulation in Ceylon 1839–1853, which, at a face value of ⅟₁₆d. (£⅟₃₈₄₀), is the lowest denomination of coin ever minted for the United Kingdom.
   • 1750 June–August, Thomas Carlyle, in The Works of Thomas Carlyle III (2010), ed. ‎Henry Duff Traill, page 257:

     [‘]The score, however, was only 10 thalers, 4 groschen, 6 pfennigs’ (30 shillings, 5 pence, and 2 or perhaps 3 quarter-farthings), ‘for what I had run-up in eight weeks[.]’

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