mill-sixpence

English

Noun

mill-sixpence (plural mill-sixpences)

1. (obsolete) A milled sixpence.
   • c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merry Wiues of Windsor”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i]:

     seven groats in mill-sixpences

   • 1621 August 13 (first performance; Gregorian calendar), Ben Jonson, “The Masque of the Gypsies”, in Q. Horatius Flaccus: His Art of Poetry. […], London: […] J[ohn] Okes, for John Benson […], published 1640, →OCLC:

     a mill sixpence of my mother's I loved as dearly, and a two-pence I had to spend over and above […]

Usage notes

• The sixpence was one of the first English coins milled (in 1561).

References

• “mill-sixpence”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.