1853 H. N. Humphreys Coin Collector's Man. I. xxi. 260 The Semis, Semisis, or Semi-as, has an S upon it to denote its weight, as half that of the ‘as’; it represented six ounces, and the type most usual in the Roman series is the head of Jupiter.

1949 Oxf. Classical Dict. 210/2 The coinage [of the early Empire] comprised aureus and half~piece in gold, denarius and half-piece in silver, sestertius, dupondius, and semis in orichalcum (brass), as and quadrans in copper.

1962 R. A. G. Carson Coins 180 Gold solidi were issued with some frequency, the semis or half~piece only rarely in the reign of the three brothers.

1962 R. A. G. Carson Coins 197 In keeping with the earlier fifth-century tradition the obverse of the semis and the tremissis showed the diademed and cuirassed bust of the emperor in profile.

1979 Nature 5 July 46/2 The magnetisation of an orichalcum semis of the Roman Emperor Tiberius remained below the noise level up to the maximum fields available.

1926 R. Glazier Man. Hist. Ornament 155 Some French bindings for Henry IV. are tooled with a semis of monograms on flowers.

1960 G. A. Glaister Gloss. Bk. 323/2 Powdered, the effect obtained on a book cover when small flower ornaments are repeated regularly in rows over it. Early examples date from 1560 on books bound for Charles IX of France. Also known as semis or semé.

1960 H. Hayward Connoisseur's Handbk. Antique Collecting 253/1 Semis,..a repeating pattern of small ornaments used by bookbinders, ‘sown’ over the covers of books.

1977 J. Fleming & H. Honour Penguin Dict. Decorative Arts 719/1 Semis, an heraldic term also used in bookbinding for a diaper design made by the repetition of one or more small tooled ornaments.