United States mill token In the United States, the term was first used by the
Continental Congress in 1786, being described as the "lowest money of account, of which 1000 shall be equal to the federal dollar". The
Coinage Act of 1792 describes milles and other subdivisions of the dollar: The U.S. Mint in Philadelphia made
half cents worth five mills each from 1793 to 1857.
Tokens in this denomination were issued by some states and local governments (and by some private interests) for such uses as payment of
sales tax. These were of inexpensive materials such as
tin,
aluminium,
plastic or
paper. Rising
inflation depreciated the value of these tokens in relation to the value of their constituent materials; this depreciation led to their eventual abandonment. Virtually none were made after the 1960s. Today, most Americans would refer to fractions of a cent rather than mills, a term that is widely unknown. For example, a gasoline price of $3.019 per gallon, if pronounced in full, would be "three dollars [and] one and nine-tenths cents" or "three zero-one-nine dollars". Discount coupons, such as those for grocery items, usually include in their fine print a statement such as "Cash value less than of 1 cent". There are also common occurrences of "half-cent" discounts on goods bought in quantity. However, the term "mill" is still used when discussing billing in the
electric-power industry as shorthand for the lengthier " of a dollar per
kilowatt hour". The term is also commonly used when discussing stock prices, the issuance of the founder's stock of a company, and
cigarette taxes.
Property tax Property taxes are also expressed in terms of mills per dollar assessed (a
mill levy, known more widely in the United States as a "
mill rate"). For instance, with a millage rate of 2.8₥, a house with an assessment of would be taxed , or . The term is often spelled "mil" when used in this context. With respect to property taxes, a "mil" is also slang for one
million units of currency, especially as a rate expressed
per mille "‰", as one
million units of currency per
milliard on the
long scale of numeration, that is, 1,000,000 per 1,000,000,000 currency units of assessed valuation on all private property throughout the "mill yard" or property-tax levy district.
Finance The term mill is often used in
finance, particularly in conjunction with equity
market microstructure. For example, a broker that charges 5 mils per share is taking in $5 every 1,000 shares traded. Additionally, in finance the term is sometimes spelled "mil". Cf.
basis point. Some exchanges allow prices to be accounted in ten-thousandths of a dollar ($29.4125 = 29,412.5₥ for example). This last digit is sometimes called a "decimill" or "deci-mill", but no exchange officially recognizes the term.
Fiction Mark Twain introduced a fictional elaboration of the mill in his 1889 novel ''
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court''. When Hank Morgan, the American
time traveler, introduces decimal currency to
Arthurian Britain, he has it denominated in cents, mills, and "milrays", or tenths of a mill (the name perhaps suggested by "
myriad", meaning ten thousand or by the Portuguese and Brazilian
milreis).
Canada In Canada, the mill rate system is fundamental for calculating property taxes at the municipal level, reflecting the amount of tax per $1,000 of assessed property value. Municipalities determine annual mill rates based on budget needs for public services like education, infrastructure, healthcare, and law enforcement. This calculation helps standardize property taxes while allowing flexibility to address specific financial needs in each locality. Mill rates are subject to adjustment annually or periodically, depending on factors like government spending requirements, economic conditions, and shifts in property valuations, providing a fair and balanced approach to local tax funding. For example, if a property is valued at $100,000 and the mill rate is set at 50, the tax due would be calculated as: 100,000 × (50 / 1,000) = 5,000. This straightforward calculation offers transparency for taxpayers and aids municipalities in consistent revenue collection.
United Kingdom Proposed on several occasions as a means of decimalising
sterling under the "pound and mil" system suggested in 1855 by
Sir William Brown MP, the mil was occasionally used in
accounting. The 1862 report from the
Select committee on Weights and Measures noted that the Equitable Insurance Company had been keeping accounts in mils (rather than in shillings and pence) for such purposes for over 100 years. Such a unit of a thousandth of a pound would have also been similar in value to the smallest coin in circulation, the
farthing (worth of a pound). By the time British currency was decimalised in 1971, the farthing had been demonetised eleven years prior, in part due to having its value eroded by inflation; thus, the mil was no longer necessary.
Malta The
Maltese lira was decimalised in 1972 on the "pound and mil" system. The coinage included denominations of two mils, three mils, and five mils from 1972 to 1994, with ten mils being equal to one cent. While prices could still be marked using mils until 2008, when the country switched to the
euro, in practice these were rounded off for accounting purposes.
Mandatory Palestine, Israel, Jordan The
Palestine pound, used as the currency of the
British Mandate for Palestine from 1927 to 1948, was divided into 1,000 mils. Its successor currencies, the
Israeli lira and the
Jordanian dinar retained the division, respectively named the
pruta and
fils. The Israeli pruta lasted until 1960, and the Jordanian fils until 1992, and in supermarket prices and taxi meters well into the 21st century.
Hong Kong Between 1863 and 1866,
the one-mil coin was the lowest denomination issued by the British government in
Hong Kong; it was eliminated due to its unpopularity.
Cyprus The
Cypriot pound was decimalised using the "pound and mil" system in 1955 and lasting until 1983. However, coins smaller than five mils ceased being used in the mid 1960s. When switched to
cents in 1983, a ½-cent coin was struck that was abolished a few years later. ==Related units==