6 Forgotten Pieces of U.S. Currency
revhen
Loc: By the beautiful Hudson
Another unknown coin was the "bit." Remember "Shave and a haircut, two bits?" What was a bit? Well, back in the old days a quarter (25 cents) was to big for cheap stuff so it would be cut in half, each half worth 12.5 cents. Thus two bits was a quarter!
The 2 dollar bill is still in circulation. The last 2 dollar bill was minted in 2017.
Mac
Loc: Pittsburgh, Philadelphia now Hernando Co. Fl.
bcheary wrote:
https://www.interestingfacts.com/forgotten-u-s-currency/YxfAAkKJ8wAItd2p
I have some $2 bills, what I’d like to find is a Franklin 50 cent piece.
Mac wrote:
I have some $2 bills, what I’d like to find is a Franklin 50 cent piece.
I have some $2 bills too.
revhen wrote:
Another unknown coin was the "bit." Remember "Shave and a haircut, two bits?" What was a bit? Well, back in the old days a quarter (25 cents) was to big for cheap stuff so it would be cut in half, each half worth 12.5 cents. Thus two bits was a quarter!
Sorry, this is not correct with respect to the coin that was actually cut up. In colonial American times the most widely circulated coin for International trade was the Spanish Reales or "piece of eight". It was used for trade throughout the world due to it's uniformity in manufacture. In colonial America it was the equivalent of the dollar. To make small change it was often cut into eight pieces (thus piece of eight) with each piece (or bit) equal to 12-1/2 cents, so two bits would be 25 cents.
8 Reales that circulated in the Orient can still be found today with "chop marks" due to the habit of stamping the coins with a symbol to ensure they were really silver.
From 1873 to 1878 the US made silver dollars called Trade Dollars for use in International trade. They had the silver content stamped on the coin "420 grains .900 fine silver". The coin was basically a failure because the price of silver fluctuated. Below is a picture of a US Trade Dollar with chopmarks (not mine).
revhen wrote:
Another unknown coin was the "bit." Remember "Shave and a haircut, two bits?" What was a bit? Well, back in the old days a quarter (25 cents) was to big for cheap stuff so it would be cut in half, each half worth 12.5 cents. Thus two bits was a quarter!
Thanks, I've always wondered.
In the early 1960s, my grandmother gave me this 1865 two-cent coin that her father gave to her.
When coins were made with soft metals such as gold people would carry a tin in their pocket to carve a sliver of the coin to put in their tin. Eventually the coin would get smaller and smaller as it passed through different hands. To prevent this minter's put ridges around the edge of coins. This is called reeding.
SteveR wrote:
The 2 dollar bill is still in circulation. The last 2 dollar bill was minted in 2017.
I was an "associate" at a purveyor of games of chance regarding the equine segment.At the time (some time ago)
The PTBs didn't want to handle $1 bets. The prevailing wisdom then decreed a $2 Window.
The payouts were also in $2 bills, to help assist clients in showing off their winnings
Rather than the incipient cost at arriving to that conclusion.
Which generated a plethora of various topical trite sayings about the possession of said $2 bills.
At the time ...
A $3 bill can be had upon request from banks.
If you want to reply, then
register here. Registration is free and your account is created instantly, so you can post right away.