fippenny bit Meaning, Definition & Usage

Fip"pen*ny bit` noun

Etymology

Corruption of five penny bit.

Definitions

1. The Spanish half real, or one sixteenth of a dollar, -- so called in Pennsylvania and the adjacent States. Obs. ✍ Before the act of Congress, Feb. 21, 1857, caused the adoption of decimal coins and the withdrawal of foreign coinage from circulation, this coin passed currently 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.