sixpence

plural sixpences

1. BritishIrishobsoleteuncountableThe value of six old pence; half of a shilling; or one-fortieth of a pound sterling.

   Finest apples, sixpence each.

   1 more example

   When the ferry-boat with her wild freight pushed into the stream, nobody cared sixpence for the wasted time but the captain of the craft.

   1876, Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], chapter XXIX, in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Hartford, Conn.: The American Publishing Company, →OCLC, page 221

2. countablehistoricaluncountableA former British or Irish coin worth six pennies, first minted in 1551.

   Have you got two sixpences for a shilling?

   2 more examples

   "One penny, sir!" He was roused at once from his abstraction; for it was a question to himself whether he had even that in his pocket. Sixpence was, however, discovered; he paid the toll, and passed on.

   1832, Letitia Elizabeth Landon, Heath's Book of Beauty, 1833, The Talisman, page 55

   I remember playing card games with my grandfather. Games of memory, not of skill. If I won, he gave me sixpence; if he won, he didn't. We would play until I was bored, or until he ran out of sixpences.

   1994, Neil Gaiman, Mr. Punch