\Fip"pen*ny bit`\ (? or ?). [Corruption of five
penny bit.]
The Spanish half real, or one sixteenth of a dollar, -- so
called in Pennsylvania and the adjacent States. [Obs.]
Note: Before the act of Congress, Feb. 21, 1857, caused the
      adoption of decimal coins and the withdrawal of foreign
      coinage from circulation, this coin passed currently
      for 61/4 cents, and was called in New England a
      fourpence ha'penny or fourpence; in New York a
      sixpence; in Pennsylvania, Virginia, etc., a fip; and
      in Louisiana, a picayune.