# Two Bits = 1 coin or 2? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 19, 2009, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-bits-1-coin-or-2/489988 "2009-03-19T03:45:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![SeanArenas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df705f/32.png) [@SeanArenas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SeanArenas)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2009, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-bits-1-coin-or-2/489988/1 "2009-03-19T03:45:16Z")
I’m watching Carnivale, and in Season 2 Episode 6, and a guy wants to dance with Libby. He wants to demean her by offering money, so he says, “How much does it cost to dance? Two bits?” He then tosses two coins at her. “Four bits?” He tosses two more. Now, isn’t two bits = $0.25? I understand you can have two objects which is equal to $0.25, which are each 1/8 of a piece of Spanish milled ([wikipedia reference](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two_bits)), but he tossed round coins to her. Was there a point in time (the TV show is circa 1934) where two bits would really equal two round coins? ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2009, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-bits-1-coin-or-2/489988/2 "2009-03-19T03:49:27Z")
Quarters have been minted in the U.S. since 1796. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2009, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-bits-1-coin-or-2/489988/3 "2009-03-19T03:51:25Z")
Nah, the term “two bits” almost always equated to the Spanish equivalent of a 2 real. As late as the 1900s, it only meant a quarter dollar. No need for the multiple coins. ---
**Author:** ![yabob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yabob/32/2821_2.png) [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2009, 4:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-bits-1-coin-or-2/489988/4 "2009-03-19T04:03:43Z")
Spanish coinage was demonetized in the US in 1857, and was not in common circulation by the 20th century. A Spanish “bit” may have been a round 1 real coin, not a slice of a Spanish dollar, but nobody would have been carrying them in the US in 1934. In 1834, very likely. ---
**Author:** ![SeanArenas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df705f/32.png) [@SeanArenas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SeanArenas)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2009, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-bits-1-coin-or-2/489988/5 "2009-03-19T04:26:09Z")
So basically, in 1934, someone would toss ONE coin when they say “two bits,” **or** they would just say “a quarter” or “twenty five cents,” right? ---
**Author:** ![The\_Second\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@The\_Second\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Second_Stone)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2009, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-bits-1-coin-or-2/489988/6 "2009-03-19T04:30:59Z")
> [@SeanArenas](#): > > So basically, in 1934, someone would toss ONE coin when they say “two bits,” **or** they would just say “a quarter” or “twenty five cents,” right? My father, who was a small child in '34, still calls twenty-five cents, “two bits”. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2009, 5:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-bits-1-coin-or-2/489988/7 "2009-03-19T05:23:27Z")
I think some of you are missing what the OP is asking. Sean is obviously aware that “two bits” is a slang term of twenty five cents and also that it derives from the old practice of cutting a Spanish dollar coin into eight pieces. His question is whether it was realistic to have somebody in the 1930’s paying a twenty five cent price with two round coins. The answer, as far as I can tell, is no - in addition to our current coinage, there have been half cent coins, two cent coins, three cent coins, and twenty cent coins but there apparently has never been a twelve and a half cent coin. Twenty cent coins were never common and had been discontinued for over fifty years by the time _Carnivale_ was set in, so it’s very unlikely the character would have had a couple of twenty cent coins he could have combined with two nickels. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2009, 5:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-bits-1-coin-or-2/489988/8 "2009-03-19T05:27:41Z")
Perhaps he threw a 20-cent piece (minted from 1875 to 1878) and a nickel. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2009, 10:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-bits-1-coin-or-2/489988/9 "2009-03-19T10:10:04Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > I think some of you are missing what the OP is asking. Sean is obviously aware that “two bits” is a slang term of twenty five cents and also that it derives from the old practice of cutting a Spanish dollar coin into eight pieces. As others replied, in the 1930s it would have simply been a quarter, not two coins. BTW, the idea that Spanish “dollar coins” were routinely cut into parts is almost certainly false. The “bit” reference is to a small thing and could have been a half real or a one real. ---
**Author:** ![Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/half_man_half_wit/32/21766_2.png) [@Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Half_Man_Half_Wit)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2009, 10:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-bits-1-coin-or-2/489988/10 "2009-03-19T10:19:19Z")
On the other hand, one coin comes up either ‘heads’ or ‘tails’, so it’s just one bit… Yeah, I know, stop throwing things! It’s how I read the question at first… ---
**Author:** ![Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freddy_the_Pig)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2009, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-bits-1-coin-or-2/489988/11 "2009-03-19T14:04:07Z")
> [@SeanArenas](#): > > Now, isn’t two bits = $0.25? Of course! This gives us the old-timey school cheer, “Two bits–four bits–six bits–a dollar All for (your school here)–Let’s holler!” As for the TV show, it’s careless writing by hacks assuming that two bits _must_ have been two coins, because it sounds like two coins. Of course, in their defense the writers could say it was a mistake deliberately put in the mouth of the character. But, that doesn’t wash. “Two bits” was more common in the 1930’s than today, and even a lowlife carnie hustler would have known it was one quarter. ---
**Author:** ![Quercus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/7ab992/32.png) [@Quercus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quercus)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2009, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-bits-1-coin-or-2/489988/12 "2009-03-19T14:14:21Z")
> [@Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](#): > > On the other hand, one coin comes up either ‘heads’ or ‘tails’, so it’s just one bit… > Yeah, I know, stop throwing things! It’s how I read the question at first… Hey, that’s how I read the heading, too. I was all ready to talk about flipping two coins is required for two bits of entropy… Lucky I read the OP rather than just the heading. ---
**Author:** ![sailor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a587f6/32.png) [@sailor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sailor)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2009, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-bits-1-coin-or-2/489988/13 "2009-03-19T16:13:12Z")
> [@samclem](#): > > BTW, the idea that Spanish “dollar coins” were routinely cut into parts is almost certainly false. Exactly. This is an explanation made up ex post facto by those who ignore that a Spanish dollar (Peso Duro) was worth eight reales and that is another reason they were called “pieces of eight” (eight reales). Around the end of the 18th century Spanish currency was quite complex and the equivalence ratio between gold and silver fluctuated. The international standard was the gold dollar of eight reales. In Spanish currency two reales until recently was half a peseta and there was a coin worth dos reales but not un real. Same as two bits. People said dos reales and understood it was one coin. (These had a hole in the center and I collected a long string of them which is part of the junk I still own as they are pretty much worthless.) The peseta was created in the late 19th century but the name of the spanish dollar (peso) duro lived on as the 5 peseta and well into the second half of the 20th century many people continued to count in duros. 100 pesetas was always “20 duros”. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2009, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-bits-1-coin-or-2/489988/14 "2009-03-19T16:18:30Z")
> [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](#): > > Of course! This gives us the old-timey school cheer, > > “Two bits–four bits–six bits–a dollar > All for (your school here)–Let’s holler!” Not enough syllables – It’s “stand up and holler!” ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2009, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-bits-1-coin-or-2/489988/15 "2009-03-19T16:21:51Z")
> [@](#): > > BTW, the idea that Spanish “dollar coins” were routinely cut into parts is almost certainly false. I never thought about it before but I’ve never actually seen a cut-up coin. If it was a routine practice, a lot of those little wedges would presumedly still be around. ---
**Author:** ![SeanArenas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df705f/32.png) [@SeanArenas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SeanArenas)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2009, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-bits-1-coin-or-2/489988/16 "2009-03-19T16:50:23Z")
Someone mentioned their father, who was a child at the time. It reminded me to ask my grandfather, born in 1922. So he was 12 at the time, but I assume that lingo and coin usage won’t drop out of use in 12 months. Surely they would still have been in use by the time he was 15 or 20 and handling money himself enough to be familiar with it. He told me that there was never a single coin called a bit, and two bits always meant $0.25. ---
**Author:** ![sailor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a587f6/32.png) [@sailor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sailor)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2009, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-bits-1-coin-or-2/489988/17 "2009-03-19T17:20:32Z")
Cutting up a gold coin into eight pieces would be foolish as it would lose value. A minted coin can be inspected but how can you know a piece is an exact eighth of a genuine original. And I hope everyone knows the price of [a shave and a haircut](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shave_and_a_Haircut). ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2009, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-bits-1-coin-or-2/489988/18 "2009-03-19T23:00:45Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > I never thought about it before but I’ve never actually seen a cut-up coin. If it was a routine practice, a lot of those little wedges would presumedly still be around. Exactly. I’ve been a coin dealer since about 1971. I’ve got a special interest in coins of the world, not just US. I’ve bought literally millions of world coins during that time. I’ve bought the little Spanish American silver coins from the 1730s-1890s which were the half real, one real, two real. (The four real was the equivalent of half a US dollar and the 8 real was the equivalent of the US silver dollar). I’ve probably bought thousands of these small coins from groups which were preserved by parents, grandparents, great–you get the picture. I’ve only ever bought 5-10 of the “cut” pieces of Spanish coins, and _in every case_ they were from the Carribean Islands. They actually did this and then counterstamped them for useage in that Island. I’ve _never_ purchased a “cut” piece of coinage from a Spanish 8 real. ---
**Author:** ![SeanArenas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df705f/32.png) [@SeanArenas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SeanArenas)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2009, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-bits-1-coin-or-2/489988/19 "2009-03-19T23:14:26Z")
I e-mailed my grandfather back and asked what denomination you pay with in 1934 if someone asks you for two bits, and he said it’s always one coin. Guess they were just wrong in the movie. Too bad, because wrong popular culture will only cause wrong impressions of our history. How many people were vague on what “two bits” meant as far as a physical representation (coins) or even value, and now firmly believe that there’s a coin called a bit, and you somehow always pay with two of them? ---
**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:** [March 20, 2009, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-bits-1-coin-or-2/489988/20 "2009-03-20T01:02:58Z")
> [@](#): > > On the other hand, one coin comes up either ‘heads’ or ‘tails’, so it’s just one bit… So this pirate walks into a bar, and the bird on his shoulder is squawking “Pieces of seven! Pieces of seven!”. The bartender asks “What’s with him?”, and the pirate says “Ignore him-- That’s just a one-bit parroty error”. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-bits-1-coin-or-2/489988.md?page=2)