Date: Sat, 27 May 2000 22:14:52 -0400
From: "Mike Ward" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: RE: H Re: Was Getting screened / Currency of the realm
My wife will tell you: don't ask unless you want to know!
According to what I remember from my teenage years as a numismatist: Several
hundred years ago, Spain began minting a coin with a value of eight
"reales." I'm not quite sure of what a reale is, but there you go. Such
coins, whether silver or gold, came to be called "pieces of eight." I
imagine you've probably heard of that in a pirate movie or similar. Since
the reale was actually a standard of value itself, and the eight-reale coin
was substantially more valuable than your average pirate/worker might carry
around in his coin bag, the practice of cutting the coins up into equal-size
pieces, each worth one reale, was born. Each eighth of a coin was referred
to as a "bit." Three-fourths of a coin would then be called "six bits",
one-half would be "four bits", and one-quarter would be "two bits." When the
US began to mint its twenty-five cent coin, it was worth one quarter of an
American dollar. Hence the term "two bits" began to be applied to the coin,
simply as a common substitute for "one quarter."
Interesting little piece of history, no?
Mike
> -----Original Message-----
> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[snip]
>
> I have no idea what the following means!!
>
> >For Rob:
> >
> >US, 2 bits:?
> >
> >4 bits:?
> >
> >6 bits:?
>
>
>
>
>
>
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