[droptablemain]

The famous little jingle "shave and a haircut, two bits"

Most people today have no clue what a "bit" is.

I imagine the future will hold something similar for the penny in all the idioms and cultural phrases we have. What the hell is a penny?

[retrocog]

Exactly. Two bits is a quarter because the US silver dollar was modeled on the Spanish Pillar Dollar, also called pieces of eight. Hence 2/8 (two bits) = 1/4.

[fstarship]

It’s kind of like lots of imperial measurements where we use metric still have these in idioms.

[paulmooreparks]

"I would walk 500 kilometers" just doesn't sound as romantic.

[barbazoo]

What is a bit, a penny?

[dec0dedab0de]

1/8, so 2 bits is a quarter.

it comes from old spanish coins that they would cut into eight pieces, or bits.

I learned that after watching one of the pirates of the Caribbean movies and googling pieces of eight.

[patrickthebold]

Half a quarter.