The Sp. real. See quot. 1828. The half of it was a fourpence-halfpenny piece.
1806. He gave me a 41/2d. piece to go and buy some shot.—‘Selfridge’s Trial,’ p. 79 (Boston).
1828. A ninepence in New England, Virginia, and some other parts of our confederacy, for aught I know, is a shilling in New York, and a ’levenpenny bit in Pennsylvania; and a half pistareen is about a sixth part less everywhere. This is the fag end of our old provincial currency.—The Yankee, May 14 (Portland, Me.).
1829. “There is a power of muskrats about these parts, sir,” he replied, “and with the help of these tools,” holding up his snares, “I can sometimes gather a few ninepences with no more cost than a wet pair of breeches, which is fisherman’s luck.”—John P. Kennedy, ‘Swallow Barn,’ p. 257 (N.Y., 1851).
1835. [The landlord let him] endeavor to draw a precarious subsistence from the fo’ pence ha’ pennies and nine pences that the generosity of the bathers might bestow upon his indigence.—P. H. Nicklin, ‘Letters on the Virginia Springs,’ p. 65 (Phila.).
1836. We have heard in Marblehead the cry to strangers, peculiar to that town, Give me ninepence, and I won’t stone ye.—Phila. Public Ledger, Aug. 30.
1837. The name Picayune is the Creole bastard Spanish for what we call a Fip, the Gothamites a Sixpence, and the Bostonians a Fourpence halfpenny.—Id., Feb. 7.
1839. Scarcely an individual [in Rye, N.H.] is willing to part with a fourpence-ha’penny without the assurance that it will bring back a ninepence.—Farmer’s Monthly Visitor, i. 33 (Concord, N.H.).
1842. A day or two since, a gentleman in Boston received a letter enclosing a ninepence.—Phila. Spirit of the Times, May 21.
1844. She stated that she had lost a ninepence given her by her mother to purchase a pound of butter.—Id., July 24.
1853. What is the currency of the U.S.? Coppers, bogus, Bungtown cents, pennies, fips, fourpence ’a’pennies, levys, ninepences, Spanish quarters, pistareens, and shin plasters.—Oregonian, Aug. 13.
1853. If you calkerlate I’m goin’ to pay four ninepences for my breakfass, an’ not get the value on’t, you’re mistaken.—Olympia (W.T.) Courier, April 16.
