Bit

Usually one-eighth of a dollar. See a valuable note by Mr. John E. Norcross of Brooklyn on ‘Dollars, Bits, Picayunes’: Notes and Queries, 10 S. viii. 63–4.

1683.  Spanish bitts and Boston money.—‘Colonial Records of Pennsylvania,’ i. 85. (N.E.D.)

1819.  A bit is the Pennsylvania eleven-pence, the New York shilling, and the New England nine-pence.—Henry C. Knight (‘Arthur Singleton’), ‘Letters from the South and West,’ p. 127 (Boston, 1824).

1840.  

1850.  Two bits for a cup of coffee; two bits for a piece of pie; or if hunger and economy were to be considered, two doughnuts for a quarter of a dollar. Hardly anybody said “two bits” or quarter of a dollar in those days. It was “dos reales!” “cuatro reales!” “un peso!”—Barry and Patten, ‘Men and Memories of San Francisco,’ p. 132 (1873).

1854.  Those who had fathers, uncles, aunts, or other like dernier resorts, in Virginia, limped back with feathers moulted and crestfallen, to the old stamping ground, carrying the returned Californian’s fortune of ten thousand dollars—six bits in money, and the balance in experience.—J. G. Baldwin, ‘Flush Times,’ p. 94–5.

1854.  The will of the millionaire that cuts off an expectant heir with a “short bit.”—Dow, Jun., ‘Patent Sermons,’ iv. 219.

1856.  ‘I declare, Cousin Ellis, you have n’t changed a bit,’ exclaimed Mrs. Twiggles. ‘Changed a BIT!—course I have n’t here in Philadelphia—if I had, should have got two fips for it, and been same old sixpence after all.—Knick. Mag., xlviii. 502 (Nov.).

1859.  Let ’em fight it out, Daddy. I’d give a long bit, myself, to see ’em pull hair.—Mrs. Duniway, ‘Captain Gray’s Company,’ p. 158 (Portland, Oregon).

1860.  The price of liquor at Salem, till recently, was two bits a drink. Now it is a bit. Take off the license, and liquor could be as well afforded for a picayune, or at least three drinks for a quarter.—Letter to Oregon Argus, July 21.