[f. FOUR a. + PENCE.] A sum of money or coin equal to four pennies. Fourpence-halfpenny: see quots. 1722, 1860.
The Irish shilling of Elizabeth circulated in England under the name and at the value of ‘ninepence’; it is inferred that the ‘fourpence-halfpenny’ was the Irish sixpence of the same period.
1722. De Foe, Col. Jack (1840), 46. But there he was balked, for it was a paper of old thirteenpence-halfpenny pieces, half and quarter pieces, with ninepences, and fourpence-halfpennies, all old crooked money, Scotch and Irish coin.
1852. R. S. Surtees, Sponge’s Sp. Tour (1893) 319. ‘Well, there’s sixpence for you, my good woman,’ said he…. ‘Its nabbut fourpence,’ observed the woman.
1860. Bartlett, Dictionary of Americanisms, s.v. Federal Currency, The [Spanish] half real … is called … in New England, fourpence ha’penny, or simply fourpence.
1872. O. W. Holmes, Poet Breakf-t., iii. (1885), 75. Give me two fo’pencehappenies for a ninepence.
