"Two-bits", "sawbuck" and "buck"

Bigern

Does anyone know the origin, circa and definition of these slang references to money? My grandson asked me and I felt very foolish not knowing where the term "buck" came from.

Thanks

Bigern

Cam40

Two-bits. I never could understand how `2 bits` could be = to 25c. So 1 bit is 12 and a half cents?
As a youth I didnt know there ever was such thing as a half of one penny. I just thought my grandpa was nuts.
2 bits.Cmon. Maybe in the old west they had 2 bit coins but I,d never seen one.

semicycler

I have a rough idea about two-bits. I'm sure I will be corrected though.

The Spanish Dubloon, a common trading coin, used to be physically split into eight pieces ("pieces of eight") to make change. Therefore, two pieces of eight, or two-bits, was 1/4 of the whole coin. With the dollar, 1/4 is 25 cents.

CarlWohlforth

Scott mentioned all I know about 2 bits.

I looked up Sawbuck and found that term used most frequently in describing furniture. I think a sawbuck is a rack to hold wood that you are cutting. It looks like it is made from two pieces of wood on each end. The wood is put together in an X so a log rests securely in it. A sawbuck table looks like a sawbuck with a table on top.

So my guess is that X looks like the roman numeral for 10 and that is how it became slang for a 10 dollar bill.

Does anybody really know?

lordmarcovan

Semicycler was close about "two bits", but it was the Spanish Milled dollar, a silver coin, not the "doubloon", which was gold. The Spanish milled dollar's denomination was 8 reales, and coins were also struck in the 1/2, 1, 2, and 4-reales denominations. 2 reales was one-quarter of a Spanish milled dollar. While there were 2-reales coins, sometimes folks did cut the larger 8-real pieces into smaller "bits", and a pie-shaped quarter of an 8-real coin was called "two bits", as it was worth 2 reales.

The Spanish Milled dollar and its fractional equivalents were legal tender in the United States until 1857, and probably outnumbered our own coins in circulation in many areas. Down here with my metal detector, for example, I have found as much or more Spanish silver than pre-Civil War U.S. coins.

Our founding fathers based the US dollar on the Spanish Milled dollar.

An 8-real piece would have been worth a dollar.

A 4-real piece, or 4 bits (two pie-shaped quarters of an 8-real coin), would have been worth fifty cents.

A 2-real piece, or 2 bits, would have been worth 25 cents.

A 1-real piece would have been worth 12.5 cents.

A half-real piece would have been worth 6.25 cents.

The gold doubloons semicycler mentioned also came in denominations of 1/2, 1, 2, 4, and 8, though in this case, it was escudos rather than reales. They were commonly called "doubloons" because, like the silver reales, each larger denomination was double the one before it.



As to the origin of "sawbuck", I have often wondered the answer myself. Until I find out, Carl's theory sounds as good to me as any.

And I have a theory about the origin of the word "buck" for a dollar, but it's just that: a theory. Really not even a theory, just a wild speculation: maybe it comes from what a buckskin used to cost, back in the old days??

Tade

A doe came out of the woods, shaking her head, saying "I'll never do that again for two bucks!"

Gilbert

Hmmmm?

Maybe "buck" has to do with the "base denomination" of a thing. I heard the term(s) "Buck Sergeant" and "Buck Private" used in old military references. Those ranks refer to a "basic" sergeant and private. This is speculation of course.

DHeath

Here is some pretty good speculation.

lordmarcovan

Aha! So I wasn't too far off!

CarlWohlforth

That was a great link DHeath! Every numismatist should read that article

agapaone

First rate thread!! Everyone should read this!!