ninepence

nine +‎ pence

ninepence (plural ninepences)

1. (obsolete, Britain) A former British silver coin, worth nine old pennies.
   • 1662, [Samuel Butler], “[The First Part of Hudibras]”, 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: University Press, 1905, →OCLC, canto 1:

     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.

     read at Wikisource

2. (obsolete, Britain) Nine old pennies.
   • 1929, Robert Dean Frisbee, The Book of Puka-Puka (republished by Eland, 2019; p. 137):

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

3. (obsolete, New England) A Spanish real, valued at twelve and a half cents.

• commendation ninepence

• ninepence in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913