In 19th century USA, pins were used as an informal monetary unit. Remember stories like Tom Sawyer... admission to the performance the kids gave was a pin (or two). Back then our coin money was worth something, and for values less than a penny they used pins. I don't remember how many pins would be worth one penny. Pins could be a bit hard to obtain and the ones a person had were valued.
Two pins would be a value smaller than the penny. This term was probably carried down by common usage, way beyond the time when it had real meaning. For a history of the pin, look at http://www.madehow.com/Volume-7/Straight-Pin.html However, it does not tell about the use of the pin as currency. Alice in Oregon -- expecting a very wet Easter ----- Original Message ---- Subject: [lace] Re: pins On Apr 11, 2009, at 8:54, [email protected] (Jacquie) wrote: > First of all, a sidestep. Can anyone tell me the origin (and meaning) of > the saying "For two pins......" - To unsubscribe send email to [email protected] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [email protected]. For help, write to [email protected]
