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

Am 21.12.01, Tristan Alexander McLeay yscrifef:

>  --- bjm10@CORNELL.EDU wrote:
>
> > Exactly my point.  Even though the value of the nickel is five cents, it
> > is never called anything but a nickel.
>
> Where did these interesting names for coins in the US come from?
From the people,  of course!

> (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?)
What we have now are:

1c      penny, cent
5c      nickel, five cent piece
10c     dime, ten cent piece
25c     quarter, twentyfive cent piece, two bits
50c     half, fifty cent piece, four bits
$1      dollar, brass buck, S.B. Agony, SBA, Ike, silver dollar

We have had:

half cents, two cent pieces, three cent pieces (aka trimes
and "nickels"), half dimes, 20c pieces (double dimes),
$2.50 gold pieces (quarter eagles), $5 (half eagles), $10
(eagles), $20 (double eagles). Someone proposed a $50 and
$100 (half union, and union) in the 19th century; another
proposal was the $4 piece (stella).

Usually people don't know about them because they are
"obsolete" - i.e., still legal tender, but not found
in general circulation. As late as 1898 (and probably
well into early 20th century) 1/2c, 2c, 3c and 20c
could be found in circulation. Half cents were discontinued
in 1857 and the others by the 1870s.

> Tristan
Padraic.
--
Bethes gwaz vaz ha leal.