Robert Louis Stevenson on making change for 1 bit in the US West

Stumbled across this quote while trying to research something else (the Danish West Indian "bit"), and though it was kind of fun to see a contemporaneous account of making change between the former Mexican 8 real and US 100 cent systems:

"In the Pacific States they have made a bolder push for complexity, and settle their affairs by a coin that no longer exists – the bit, or old Mexican real. The supposed value of the bit is twelve and a half cents, eight to the dollar. When it comes to two bits, the quarter-dollar stands for the required amount. But how about an odd bit? The nearest coin to it is a dime, which is, short by a fifth. That, then, is called a short bit. If you have one, you lay it triumphantly down, and save two and a half cents. But if you have not, and lay down a quarter, the bar-keeper or shopman calmly tenders you a dime by way of change; and thus you have paid what is called a long bit, and lost two and a half cents, or even, by comparison with a short bit, five cents." Robert Louis Stevenson, Across the Plains, 1892.

I've read that the 20 cent piece was intended to solve this problem by allowing one to pay for a one bit purchase (12.5 cents) and receive a dime in change, thus gaining instead of losing 2.5 cents. But it was too similar both in size and design to the US quarter dollar, and was a failure.

 

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The Twenty Cent piece was very similar to a quarter. When I was a young kid way back in the 50's there was an old farmer that would push his vegetable cart down the alleys selling his goods. One day my mother gave me a 50 cent piece and sent me to the cart for something. It turned out that the product I was purchasing was 25 cents. I gave the vendor a half dollar and he gave me back a twenty cent piece.

I was a collector and recognized it immediately. The thought flashed through my head of all the possible options I had. I had been a coin collector since I was 5 years old. My parents and relatives were very supportive of this hobby. I decided my best option was to apologize to mom for the error and take my licks. Mom would be out 5 cents, short like the story says. I knew my mom quite well. She pretended to be excited and told me to put it in my collection.

I've told it before how lucrative collecting was when I was young. Just about any coin ever produced for circulation was still out there for a person to find in change.

 

Not many of us can say we got a 20 cent coin in pocket change! I am now 70 years old, and I have never picked up a V nickel, Indian Head cent or Barber anything in pocket change. Probably never will either.

 

I'm more than 10 years behind you, and I've gotten both a V nickel and a fairly nice IHC in change somewhere between 5 and 10 years ago (at the previous job's cafeteria). It's luck of the draw (literally, I guess) -- but it takes more luck with each passing year. And, of course, we're all giving and receiving change less frequently these days.

 

I think I may have had a distinct advantage. I started at 5 during a time and in a place where everyone was trusted until they proved that they were not trusted. First, it was just after WW II and money was tight. People spent whatever they had. We had 5 or 6 Mom & Pop grocery stores in my neighborhood. I knew the owners and they let me search their change anytime I wanted. The local bank let me sit in the vault every Saturday morning and roll change for the tellers. The local amusement park let me help close out at night. Roll all those coins. I had many other outlets.

At 13 I started working almost every night and some afternoons as a pinsetter at the local bowling alley. Good job, I made about $8 a shift. That is a lot of money to gather coins with. We had a small coin club for us young collectors. We got together frequently and traded. We rarely sold. You may have to trade several semi-scarce to get a more scarce coin. We didn't trade, or even find the 09svdb, 16d, etc. We saw IHC, V nickels, Barbers, and such very frequently. If you had a dollar you could pick up a Morgan or Peace at the bank in an even trade.

It was a good time to be a collector​

 

And that's the "coin collecting" that captured me as a small child, and reclaimed me as an adult. I guess searching for that 65+ in a 65 slab is just as much a "hunt" as going through pocket change, but it doesn't feel like the same hobby.

 

When I was 13, we lived in a small town in Indiana. One day, my mother asked me to get her purse for her. When I picked it up, I saw a silver dollar. I was not a bad kid, but I took the silver dollar from her purse. She never said anything, mainly because I had never, ever done anything like this. I didn't know the value, other than I thought one dollar was a lot of money in 1959. One day, after school, I stopped at a local store and bought some candy with the silver dollar. I hid the candy when I got home. My mother came to my room and asked me if I liked the candy I bought. I knew I was trapped, I just didn't know how she knew. It seems that my mother went to school with the owner of the store and he called her to let her know that I bought some candy with a silver dollar. He returned the silver dollar to my mother. I never got a chance to get a bit from my candy hoard, but my siblings got it. I never, ever, stole anything again. I'm just glad my father was in Korea in the army.

 

They say "father knows best", but, mother knows everything.

 

i am 54..and have received , or found..albeit many years ago whence was a wee lad of 10-14 or so...mercury dimes, buffalo nickels, silver nickels, a few barber dimes, and a shite-tonne of wheaties..not to mention 40% silver and 90% silver...of course this was back in the late 70"s and early 80"s....heck, i remember at a flea market once..i sold a 90% silver roosie, for about 40 cents (price at the time) and the dude paid me with 4 dimes, one of which was a nicer grade roosie, lol..made out!!

 

Still to this day.........I was recently at an estate auction that also has a small amount of coins. The auctioneer mistook the 20 cent piece for a quarter and sold it for a little more than scrap.

 

The idea of the 20 cent piece as being a way to end getting shortchanged was silly. It would only work if you just happened to have that particular coin (just like you wouldn't be shortchanged if you just happened to have the one bit piece) if you didn't you still got shortchanged. The obvious solution was not to create another silver coin almost identical in size to the quarter, it would have been to allow the western mints to coin cents and five cent pieces.

 

One cent and five cent gold pieces!

 

Wee lil' bits of gold dust.