Re: New 32bit packages for amd64

[Franz Schenk <schenk@informatik.uni-goettingen.de>]

On Thu, 2005-07-14 at 14:06 -0500, Ron Johnson wrote:
> On Thu, 2005-07-14 at 20:40 +0200, Goswin von Brederlow wrote:
> > Ron Johnson <ron.l.johnson@cox.net> writes:
> > 
> > > On Thu, 2005-07-14 at 18:22 +0200, Goswin von Brederlow wrote:
> > >> Hi,
> > > [snip]
> > >
> > > 37.5 cent packages?  ;)
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > (Or is that solely an Americanism?) 
> > 
> > I don't get that. Must be an Americanism.
> 
> This hearkens back to when Spanish gold coins were common currency
> in the colonies.  Their value was based on the gold, and
> not the good faith and credit of Spain, and they were easily split
> into 8 equal parts.  Each "bit" was thus == 1/8th of a "dollar".
> 
> "2 bits" is still[0] in slang use to mean a quarter dollar, and
> also a slur to mean anything cheap.  A "2 bit pair of shoes", for
> example.
> 
> Thus, 3 bits == 37.5 cents.  And in this case, it was just humor.
> 
> [0] But fading fast, since not much is worth a quarter anymore.
> 

ok, this might be off-topic by now, but I always wanted to know:

is this expression related to the saying 'just my two cents' or 'just my
two pennies worth'?
If not, maybe someone could enter with an explanation about the origin
of this phrase?

Thanks for this little etymological field trip :-)

Franz