# Pennies and Cents **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 14, 2006, 11:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pennies-and-cents/368647 "2006-08-14T11:02:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![robcaro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/df705f/32.png) [@robcaro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robcaro)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2006, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pennies-and-cents/368647/41 "2006-08-14T20:44:41Z")
I remember when, in the USA, a quarter was sometimes referred to as 2 bits. And 75¢, not a coin, was referred to as 6 bits. ---
**Author:** ![Auntbeast](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Auntbeast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Auntbeast)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2006, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pennies-and-cents/368647/42 "2006-08-14T21:29:13Z")
I’m just glad that my eternal question has finally been answered, then again, I could never remember to ask anyone that could tell me, or even remember to google it. I am 38 years old and only just found out that a quid=1 pound. The english pence/quid/fiver/etc has always confused the heck out of me. ---
**Author:** ![Cardinal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cardinal/32/4000_2.png) [@Cardinal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cardinal)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2006, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pennies-and-cents/368647/43 "2006-08-14T22:06:00Z")
> [@chowder](#): > > Pre 1971 6d was a tanner, 1/0d was a bob, 5/0d was half a dollar, £1 was a quid Ok, you Americans, I’ll ask for you. I’m a local answer-guy, like so many Dopers, and I’ve never even heard of this counting. What the heck is the translation of this? What are the slang terms for a pound, so I don’t make myself sound extra stupid? When is "bob"used? ---
**Author:** ![Alive\_At\_Both\_Ends](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/73ab20/32.png) [@Alive\_At\_Both\_Ends](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alive_At_Both_Ends)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2006, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pennies-and-cents/368647/44 "2006-08-14T22:15:26Z")
> [@Cardinal](#): > > Ok, you Americans, I’ll ask for you. > > I’m a local answer-guy, like so many Dopers, and I’ve never even heard of this counting. What the heck is the translation of this? What are the slang terms for a pound, so I don’t make myself sound extra stupid? When is "bob"used? Take a look at [this site](http://www.24carat.co.uk/commoncoinnamesframe.html) which explains it far better than I could. ---
**Author:** ![garygnu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garygnu/32/2924_2.png) [@garygnu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garygnu)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2006, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pennies-and-cents/368647/45 "2006-08-14T22:30:22Z")
> [@robcaro](#): > > I remember when, in the USA, a quarter was sometimes referred to as 2 bits. And 75¢, not a coin, was referred to as 6 bits. This comes from dubloons or whatever being devided into 8 pieces (hence "pieces of eight). Call the pieces “bits” and you get one quarter made up of two bits. The term is especially useful for raising your auction bid on your girl’s picnic basket. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2006, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pennies-and-cents/368647/46 "2006-08-14T22:56:21Z")
Oh, and if Canada ever gets a $5 coin, I firmly believe that they should put an albatross on it. Because then, it could be a goonie. ---
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2006, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pennies-and-cents/368647/47 "2006-08-14T23:08:52Z")
I haven’t heard anyone speak of “two bits” for a quarter dollar for a long time. However, my high school cheerleaders were fond of this cheer: "Two bits, four bits, six bits, a dollar All for the (your team) stand up and holler!" Your fans stand up and make a lot of noise, and you hope to show they outnumber the other team’s fans. Sometimes, both teams’ fans would belt out a rondo of “Two Bits,” until everybody got winded. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2006, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pennies-and-cents/368647/48 "2006-08-15T00:36:02Z")
Let me preface my answer to the OP with “this is just my considered opinion.” Prior to the US Mint starting to make coins in 1793, the citizens of the US used whatever coins were around. Mostly Spanish silver coins, probably mostly English copper coins. I’ll be willing to wager that the general term for a copper “penny,” while derived from the English coins, was merely continued out of habit by the US citizens, even when we began to make(in small quantities at first) a “cent” copper coin. The term “cent” has never been used much in American Speech except in phrases such as “not one red cent” etc. Cent was always used in formal speech. But I’ll wager(again) that “penny” was the everyday term that we used and still use. As far as nickels being made out of nickel–mostly wrong. Since the first one in 1866, they are 75% copper. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2006, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pennies-and-cents/368647/49 "2006-08-15T00:57:27Z")
> [@chowder](#): > > OK that’s pennies sorted. > > Now then why do you call your 5c and 10c coins nickels and dimes (or is it the other way around?) Also, after a cursory scanning, I didn’t see mentioned the fact that ‘dime’ is also a legal unit of account, which is why it’s “one dime” on the coin. I suspect that if I wished, I could pay somebody with a check made out in dimes rather than dollars, just moving the decimal point in the amount one place to the right. It does seem odd to have such a small unit, but then, of course until fifty or so years ago prices were a fraction of what they are now, and there were many things you could buy with a dime or two. One thing that doesn’t seem to have happened much here is everyday reckoning of prices in dimes, like the way you used to do with shillings. I know that before decimalization, one might say that something cost 30 shillings rather than a pound and a half. ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2006, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pennies-and-cents/368647/50 "2006-08-15T01:06:03Z")
> [@Cardinal](#): > > I’m a local answer-guy, like so many Dopers, and I’ve never even heard of this counting. What the heck is the translation of this? What are the slang terms for a pound, so I don’t make myself sound extra stupid? When is "bob"used? Pre-1971, British currency had three units: pounds, shillings and pence. 20 shillings in a pound, 12 pence in a shilling. The shorthand for writing prices was L/S/D, the abbreviations coming from Latin. Most items would only be priced in shillings and pence, and so 3/7 would mean ‘three shillings seven pence’. 4/- meant four shillings exactly, and -/8 or 8d would mean eight pence. ‘Bob’ was slang for ‘shilling’, so something could cost ‘four bob’, for instance. As the shilling no longer exists, the slang no longer has a precise meaning, but it still exists in more general ways: if something’s “worth a few bob”, then you should think about putting on eBay. Re. ‘half dollar’ for a half-crown…googling it suggests that it was related to the near-1:1 values of the US$ and 5-shilling crown for a long period after WW2. WAG - perhaps the slang originated from American servicemen during the war? ---
**Author:** ![Jeff\_Lichtman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jeff_lichtman/32/1531_2.png) [@Jeff\_Lichtman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jeff_Lichtman)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2006, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pennies-and-cents/368647/51 "2006-08-15T01:32:28Z")
Before the U.S. and the U.K. floated their currencies, the exchange value of a pound was fixed at $2.40. So there were the same number of U.K. pence and U.S. cents to a pound - in other words, a U.K. penny and a U.S. cent had the same value. ---
**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2006, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pennies-and-cents/368647/52 "2006-08-15T01:57:23Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > You’d never say something costs “two dimes”, you’d say “twenty cents”. Yes, but you _would_ say “Brother, can you spare a dime?” ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2006, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pennies-and-cents/368647/53 "2006-08-15T03:46:26Z")
> [@Jeff Lichtman](#): > > Before the U.S. and the U.K. floated their currencies, the exchange value of a pound was fixed at $2.40. So there were the same number of U.K. pence and U.S. cents to a pound - in other words, a U.K. penny and a U.S. cent had the same value. Prior to WWII(I believe), a pound was worth $5 US. I went looking and found 1933=$4.49US By 1954, $2.81US ---
**Author:** ![chowder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/977dab/32.png) [@chowder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chowder)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2006, 5:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pennies-and-cents/368647/54 "2006-08-15T05:09:57Z")
It has to be said that this thread has been very informative and all replies appreciated, thanks you guys. Now I’m orf darn the boozer for a bevy, I may nip over to the bookies and have a tile surround on the favourite in the 2.30. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![garygnu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garygnu/32/2924_2.png) [@garygnu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garygnu)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2006, 5:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pennies-and-cents/368647/55 "2006-08-15T05:48:59Z")
I’m glad I was able to put in my two cents. ---
**Author:** ![spingears](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ebca7d/32.png) [@spingears](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spingears)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2006, 11:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pennies-and-cents/368647/56 "2006-08-15T11:21:32Z")
> [@Polycarp](#): > > Originally (and odds are **samclem** and I are the only two Dopers who know it), the $0.10 coin was a “disme” – coined from _decimus_, one-tenth. The first, pattern pieces were called “dismes.” The “-s-” infix was dropped within the first year, and all ten-cent pieces since then are “one dime.” Unlike other current American coins except the cent and dollar, it’s the official, legal name for the coin. " (and odds are **samclem** and I are the only two Dopers who know it), " Sorry Polycarp There is at least two, one doper, and Mrs. doper who have called ten cents a dime all their lives that the can recall, and that 60 + 4 or 5! ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2006, 11:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pennies-and-cents/368647/57 "2006-08-15T11:41:40Z")
> [@spingears](#): > > " (and odds are **samclem** and I are the only two Dopers who know it), " > Sorry Polycarp > There is at least two, one doper, and Mrs. doper who have called ten cents a dime all their lives that the can recall, and that 60 + 4 or 5! Well, heck, I wouldn’t bet one thin dime that almost every American and Canadian Doper has called that 10c piece a “dime” at one time or another – that’s what it is. What I erroneously claimed exclusive knowledge of was the source of “dime” in the pattern “disme” coins. ---
**Author:** ![homeskillet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/7ba0ec/32.png) [@homeskillet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/homeskillet)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2006, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pennies-and-cents/368647/58 "2006-08-15T21:27:04Z")
> [@robcaro](#): > > I remember when, in the USA, a quarter was sometimes referred to as 2 bits. …and was good for a shave and a haircut. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2006, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pennies-and-cents/368647/59 "2006-08-16T01:17:19Z")
> [@Polycarp](#): > > ::: repents in sackcloth and ashes from being pelted with dismes by irate Dopers :::: :o You only wish it were so. You’d be a wealthy person. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2006, 7:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pennies-and-cents/368647/60 "2006-08-16T07:15:39Z")
> [@samclem](#): > > As far as nickels being made out of nickel–mostly wrong. Since the first one in 1866, they are 75% copper. However, for many years the Canadian nickel was made out of 100% nickel. Now I believe it’s made from the same or a similar alloy as the US coin. No one has adressed **why** the US 10 cent piece was officially called a **dime** (or **disme** ). As I understand it, someone back then had the idea of a three level money system, just like the L/S/D British system discussed upthread. That is, they expected amounts of money to be quoted in $/Dimes/Cents. Why they thought this was a good idea is a mystery to me, but fortunately common sense prevailed and we didn’t do that. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pennies-and-cents/368647.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pennies-and-cents/368647.md?page=4)