Source : Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

Fippenny bit \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.