ninepence

plural ninepences

1. UKcountableobsoleteuncountableA former British silver coin, worth nine old pennies.

   His wits were sent him for a token, \ But in the carriage crack'd and broken. \ Like commendation nine-pence, crookt \ With—to and from my love—it lookt.

   1662 (indicated as 1663), [Samuel Butler], “[The First Part of Hudibras]. Canto I.”, in Hudibras. The First and Second Parts. […], London: […] John Martyn and Henry Herringman, […], published 1678, →OCLC; republished in A[lfred] R[ayney] Waller, editor, Hudibras: Written in the Time of the Late Wars, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: University Press, 1905, →OCLC

2. UKcountableobsoleteuncountableNine old pennies.

   I had sold it to her that morning for ninepence; the real price was a shilling, but it was somewhat shopworn.

   1929, Robert Dean Frisbee, The Book of Puka-Puka, Eland, published 2019, page 137

3. New EnglandcountableobsoleteuncountableA Spanish real, valued at twelve and a half cents.