An elevenpenny bit; one eighth of a dollar.
1832. He … drew [out] … rather more dollars, half dollars, levies, and fips, than his dirty little hand could well hold.—Mrs. Trollope, ‘Domestic Manners of the Americans,’ i. 171.
1834. I axes a dollar a piece for the old ’unds, aand five levys for the kittens.—Knick. Mag., iii. 355.
1836. The N.Y. Transcript says that the Boston Post says that the boot-blacks have struck for a levy instead of a fip, which in New York parlance is a shilling instead of sixpence.—Phila. Public Ledger, Dec. 15.
1837. Fips and levies ain’t as plenty as snowballs in this ’ere yearthly spear.—J. C. Neal, ‘Charcoal Sketches,’ p. 182.
1837. Give us a fip’s worth of sheet and levy’s worth of blanket.—Id., p. 204 (Funk, Dict.).
1837. Half after half, quarter after quarter, and levy after levy were added to the price [of the mammoth pumpkin.]—Balt. Comml. Transcript, Oct. 2, p. 2/1.
1842. A lady entered the store, and called for a mackerel, tendering a levy in payment.—Phila. Spirit of the Times, March 17.
1848. “How much do you ax for ’em [those matches]?” ses I. “Eight boxes for a levy,” ses he.—W. T. Thompson, ‘Major Jones’s Sketches of Travel,’ p. 76 (Phila.).
1853. What is the currency of the U.S.? Coppers, bogus, Bungtown cents, pennies, fips, fourpence ’a’pennies, levys, ninepences, Spanish quarters, pistarcens, and shinplasters.—Weekly Oregonian, Aug. 13.
1857. [He] bought a fip custard for a levy.—Oregon Weekly Times, Aug. 15. (For fuller quotation see FIP.)
