Re: OT: the euro & 01.01.02 (was NATLANG/FONT:)

Eeks... you seem to have (had) a complicated currency structure... but that
still doesn't explain where `dime' comes from... Apparently, it comes from
OF `disme' from `decima pars', a tenth part, but that doesn't explain how
it came to be used to mean 10c. Was the word once more common? Was a tenth
of a pound or a shilling called a dime?

Oh, and BTW: there is such a think as cool... Just because my friends are
dorky in the same way as I am doesn't mean I'm cool. Cool is definitely
decided upon by USA society, at least in AUS. Or that is my opinion...

Tristan

At 03.07 a.m. 21.12.2001 -0500, you wrote:
>Tristan Alexander McLeay wrote:
> > Where did these interesting names for coins in the US come from?
>
>Penny: From the equivalent British coin, don't know origin of that term
>Nickel: Coin is (was?) made of nickel (I think today it's an alloy)
>Dime: Official name "One-dime piece" (On a dime, it reads "One dime")
>Quarter: Short for quarter dollar
>
> > (Do you just have pennies, nickels, dimes and quaters? No fifty or
> twenty or
> > two cent pieces? Or do they just lack names? Or are they too rare for
> people to
> > ever talk about them? Or have I just never heard about them?)
>
>In addition to the main four coins, there are a few 50-cent and 1-dollar
>coins.  I usually hear them called "Half-dollars" and "Dollar coins".
>Those are the only other coins in circulation today, tho.  The
>half-dollar says "Half dollar" on it, and the dollar coin says "One
>dollar" on it.
>
>For a period of something like 3 years in the late 19th century (I
>forget the exact years, 1870's, I think), a 20 cent coin (probably
>called a double dime or two dime or something) was minted, but
>apparently it wasn't very popular and they stopped making them.
>
>US money was set up with more than just dollars and cents.  There was a
>unit above the dollar, the Eagle (10 dollars), the dime was 1/10 dollar,
>the cent 1/100, and the mil (used only for tax purposes) is 1/1000
>dollar.  We used to have:
>Double Eagle ($20)
>Eagle ($10)
>Half-Eagle ($5)
>Quarter-Eagle ($2.50)
>Three dollar
>Dollar (Gold or silver)
>Half dollar
>Quarter dollar
>Dime
>Half dime (silver, later replaced by nickel five-cent)
>Three cent (silver, I think) - nicknamed "trime"
>One cent
>Half cent
>
>Everything smaller than the dollar, except for one cent and half cent,
>were silver, everything above was gold.  I'm not sure if there were
>nicknames for those coins.  There's also the "bit", 1/8 dollar (i.e.,
>12.5 cents), but I don't think there was ever an actual US coin for
>that, altho it was the exact equivalent of the Spanish real.
>
>--
>"There's no such thing as 'cool'.  Everyone's just a big dork or nerd,
>you just have to find people who are dorky the same way you are." -
>overheard
>ICQ: 18656696
>AIM Screen-Name: NikTaylor42

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