Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (US) twelve cents.

1834		Atlantic Club-book II 120: How is flour up country? They say it is six and four levies, and corn seven and a fip [F&H].
1838		‘Uncle Sam’s Peculiarities’ in Bentley’s Misc. IV 48: ‘How much is the fare?’ said I when one came up. ‘Two levies and a fip,’ answered the man [...] In an after-explanation I found that a New York shilling (twelve and a half cents) is in Pennsylvania an elevenpenny bit, or levy.
1848		‘Major Jones’ Sketches of Travel 76: Eight boxes for a levy.
1872		Schele De Vere Americanisms 291: The Spanish silver coins [...] have nearly all disappeared, and with them their local names, as the fip and the levy, coins representing six and a quarter, and twelve and a half cents, [...] the latter the scant remnant of eleven pence.
1891		S.M. Welch Recollections of Buffalo 1830-40 169: In the Southwestern states along the Mississippi a shilling was called a levy.

2. one shilling (five pence).

1864, 1867, 1870		Hotten Sl. Dict.
1873		Sl. Dict.
1881		Morn. Bulletin (Rockhampton, Qld) 18 July 2/6: For a shilling there are many names but nearly all slang. [...] ‘Breaky-leg,’ ‘brongs,’ ‘bobs,’ ‘bordes,’ ‘drawers,’ ‘gens’, ‘hogs,’ levys,’ ‘pegs,’ ‘stags,’ ‘Shigs,’ ‘twelvers’ and ‘teviss’s’ .
1925		(ref. to 1850s) Western Mail (Perth) 28 May 21/1: [from Daily Mail, London]At the time of the Crimean War bob was only one of a number of terms [for a shilling] such as twelver and breaky-leg, gen and teviss, stag, deaner, hog and levy.