In the United States, the term was first used by the Continental Congress * in 1786, being described as the "lowest money of accompt, of which 1000 shall be equal to the federal dollar."

The U.S. Coinage Act of 1792 describes milles and other subdivisions of the dollar:



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 material such as tin, aluminum, 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.) In some circles, the demise of the mill is regarded as the logical outcome of an "inflation-oriented" economic system (based on stocks, etc.) as opposed to a "deflation-oriented" economic system (based on the availability of tangible assets, specifically gold, silver and other precious metals).

Nowadays, most Americans are familiar with the concept of a "mill", if only peripherally. The price of gasoline being denominated almost universally (in the US) in terms of tenths of a cent (e.g., "$2.699/gallon"). There are also common occurrences of "half cent" (a coin struck until 1857) discounts on goods bought in quantity. The term "mill" is also still used when discussing billing in the electric power industry as short-hand for the lengthier "1/1000 of a dollar per kilowatt hour". Despite the commonness of such fractions of cents, the term "mill" remains widely unknown. Property taxes are also expressed in terms of mills per dollar assessed (a mill levy), although most Americans aren't aware of the derivation. For instance, with a millage rate of 5.753 mills, a $100,000 house would be taxed 575,300 mills, or $575.30.

Mark Twain introduced a fictional elaboration of the mill in 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) in anticipation of several centuries of inflation.