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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;kaparthy, post: 12292, member: 57463&quot;]The relationships between &quot;pennies&quot; and &quot;nails&quot; is itself interesting -- and the subject of a different post down the road.</p><p><br /></p><p>A &quot;penny&quot; was 1/240 of a pound: 20 shillings to the pound; 12 pence to the shilling.&nbsp; This was based on an accounting system from Italian bankers of the late middle ages and it meant 1 Pound of Silver with the shilling being an Ounce and the Penny being the last shadow of the old Roman denarius.&nbsp; (d is the symbol for penny: Lsd or L/d with the / being a quick, thin s and the curly L being &quot;libra&quot; or weight.) These were all silver coins. </p><p><br /></p><p>In the early Federal period, when the US had a large copper Cent (called ONE CENT right on the coin), the old Large Cent (1793-1857) were more or less the same size as the British (copper) Penny from about 1820 forward.&nbsp; (Britain tried huge &quot;Cartwheel&quot; coppers to replace silver, but went to a reduced and more convenient coin.) So, the US Cent was called a Penny by popular notion.&nbsp; Similarly, we call the Quarter &quot;two bits&quot; because of its near relationship the Spanish 2 Reales coins.&nbsp; (Spanish and Mexican coinage was the dominant currency in North America until after the American Civil War.&nbsp; Banknotes from Ohio and Tennessee and a dozen other places showed Spanish and Mexican coins on them.&nbsp; See Spanish Coins on American Notes at <a href="http://scoan.oldnote.org/" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://scoan.oldnote.org/" rel="nofollow">http://scoan.oldnote.org/</a>)</p><p><br /></p><p>The &quot;nickel&quot; is our modern name for the 5-cent coin that is really 75% copper and 25% nickel.&nbsp; In 1858, the name &quot;nickel&quot; applied to the first of the small cents&nbsp; -- only 12% nickel, but it gave them a &quot;white&quot; color.&nbsp; The moden nickel says &quot;Five Cents&quot; on it.</p><p><br /></p><p>However, the Dime does say &quot;Dime.&quot;&nbsp; And that is the cause of some humor among Europeans.&nbsp; What, after all, is a &quot;dime&quot;?&nbsp; The Canadian coins say &quot;10 Cents&quot; and &quot;25 Cents&quot; and &quot;50 Cents.&quot;&nbsp; American coins say &quot;half dollar&quot; and &quot;quarter dollar&quot; (which at least says something about their value) and &quot;dime&quot; (which does not).</p><p><br /></p><p>If all of the above is not more an anyone wanted to know, please, ask me for more! <img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie7" alt=":p" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" /> </p><p><br /></p><p>Michael[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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