local U.S. [Short for eleven pence or eleven-penny bit.] † a. (See quot. 1859.) b. ‘The sum of twelve and a half cents; a “bit”’ (Cent. Dict.).
1837–47. Neal, Charcoal Sk., Crooked Disciple (1872), 204 (Funk). Give us a fip’s worth of sheet and levy’s worth of blanket.
1859. Bartlett, Dict. Amer., Levy,… In … Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia, the Spanish real … twelve and a half cents. Sometimes called an elevenpenny bit.
