A picayune was a Spanish

coin A coin is a small, flat (usually depending on the country or value), round piece of metal or plastic used primarily as a medium of exchange or legal tender. They are standardized in weight, and produced in large quantities at a mint in order t ...

, worth half a

real Real may refer to: Currencies * Brazilian real (R$) * Central American Republic real * Mexican real * Portuguese real * Spanish real * Spanish colonial real Music Albums * ''Real'' (L'Arc-en-Ciel album) (2000) * ''Real'' (Bright album) (2010) ...

or one sixteenth of a

dollar Dollar is the name of more than 20 currencies. They include the Australian dollar, Brunei dollar, Canadian dollar, Hong Kong dollar, Jamaican dollar, Liberian dollar, Namibian dollar, New Taiwan dollar, New Zealand dollar, Singapore dollar, U ...

. Its name derives from the French ''picaillon'', which is itself from the Provençal ''picaioun'', the name of an unrelated small copper coin from

Savoy Savoy (; frp, Savouè ; french: Savoie ) is a cultural-historical region in the Western Alps. Situated on the cultural boundary between Occitania and Piedmont, the area extends from Lake Geneva in the north to the Dauphiné in the south. Savo ...

. By extension,

picayune A picayune was a Spanish coin, worth half a real or one sixteenth of a dollar. Its name derives from the French ''picaillon'', which is itself from the Provençal ''picaioun'', the name of an unrelated small copper coin from Savoy. By extension, ...

can mean "trivial" or "of little value". Aside from being used in Spanish territories, the picayune and other Spanish currency was used throughout the colonial United States.

Spanish dollar The Spanish dollar, also known as the piece of eight ( es, Real de a ocho, , , or ), is a silver coin of approximately diameter worth eight Spanish reales. It was minted in the Spanish Empire following a monetary reform in 1497 with content ...

s were made

legal tender Legal tender is a form of money that courts of law are required to recognize as satisfactory payment for any monetary debt. Each jurisdiction determines what is legal tender, but essentially it is anything which when offered ("tendered") in pa ...

in the U.S. by an act on February 9, 1793. They remained so until demonetization on February 21, 1857. The coin's name first appeared in

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

and

Louisiana Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is borde ...

, where its value was nominally one sixteenth of a

, i.e. cents, and whose name was sometimes used in place of the U.S. nickel."Picayune"
Probert Encyclopedia
Retrieved on April 10, 2008."Picayune"

Retrieved on April 8, 2008. A newspaper published in

New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans
Merriam-Webster. ; french: La Nouvelle-Orléans , es, Nuev ...

since the 1830s, the ''

Times-Picayune ''The Times-Picayune/The New Orleans Advocate'' is an American newspaper published in New Orleans, Louisiana, since January 25, 1837. The current publication is the result of the 2019 acquisition of ''The Times-Picayune'' (itself a result of th ...

'' (originally ''The Picayune''), was named after the coin. A city in southern

Mississippi Mississippi () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States, bordered to the north by Tennessee; to the east by Alabama; to the south by the Gulf of Mexico; to the southwest by Louisiana; and to the northwest by Arkansas. Miss ...

has the name

Picayune A picayune was a Spanish coin, worth half a real or one sixteenth of a dollar. Its name derives from the French ''picaillon'', which is itself from the Provençal ''picaioun'', the name of an unrelated small copper coin from Savoy. By extension, ...

References

External links

Coins of Spain {{coin-stub