What is a "BO" dollar.

A friend of mine today told me his grandfather use to talk about Bo(spelling ?) dollars. I told him despite my advance age, I had never heard of one. Done a little Googling but still not sure. What are these?

 

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Best guess -- a Bo Dollar is just slang for a silver dollar.

I'm familiar with the term "Bo" in coins, but only in terms of Hobo nickels. Bo was one of the most skilled carvers of Buffalo Nickels, and his coins are known as Bos.

 

Anyone know who Barack Obama is?

 

Duh!! No who the heck could that be??

 

B.O. comes from the bacteria which grows on the body and emits a foul, (usually) unpleasant scent brought on rapidly by the presence of otherwise odorless perspiration... but don't take my word for it, just listen to Del the Funky Homosapien, If You Must

Perhaps not "BO", but Beau ("B") the French coin grade equivalent to Very Good.

Just a thought...

 

Rats Chris. You beat me to it.....:goofer:

 

:d

 

I don't know the derivation of the term, but it does refer to the standard silver dollar and somewhat more specifically the Morgan dollar. I do know the term was most commonly used among the poor black of the rural south in the 30's and 40's. If it pre-dates that I don't know.

 

Something to do with Bolender varieties perhaps?

 

Oh, dollars that are worth less than face.

 

Maybe it is short for "Bodacious" Morgan bust.

 

I like it. :thumb: Or maybe it's just a nasty stinky looking dollar. Na, let's stick with the bust thing.

 

Get a gander of the little lady I left (coin club meeting) with last night....

 

I heard the term from my mother, who heard it from an older black man who worked on my grandparents' farm in West Tennessee back in the '30's. That's the closest origin I have found as well.

 

I would say that to be true!! From a "B.O. Prospective"......LOL

 

beau dollar

 –noun South Midland and Southern U.S. Older Use. a silver dollar.

(from dictionary.reference.com)

 

The current issue of either Coins or Coinage--I just read both--had an article about coin terms. It said that in the South, the Morgan dollar was often called the bow-tie dollar.

 

My Father said a few weeks ago that that is what the black folks where he grew up in west central Georgia used to call silver dollars. He was born in 1939 so that must have been in the 1940's.

 

BEAU DOLLAR


(edited)

missed this already referenced above

 

Thank for sharing! that!!!

Good link! for acronyms:kewl:
I wish we had that when I was in the US Army.we had a 8 -3 ring binders for each department like Infantry/Missile & Munitions and so on