Dollars and Cents
POSTED BY: InevitableBetrayal
UPDATED: Wednesday, June 29, 2005 13:38
VIEWED: 5606
PAGE 2 of 2
There's plenty of examples in our American language of using outdated terms for money:
-Two bits (older american phrase, I think)
-Worth his salt (roman)
-In for a penny, in for a pound (british)
-sold out for his 30 peices of silver (biblical reference)
-hide your talent under a bushel (more biblical reference)
Not so unusual that ther might be a survival of terms in the Firefly verse as well. As others have mentioned, the border planets may well have set up their own economies and may be using dollars and cents.
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Quote:
Originally posted by dug:
There's plenty of examples in our American language of using outdated terms for money:
-Two bits (older american phrase, I think)
Submitted for edification purposes only.
Most people know that it means 25 cents, but the origin is a mystery to them.
'Bit,' which ultimately comes from the Old English 'bita,' originally meant a morsel of food. From there it went on to denote any small thing, particularly a fraction of a larger whole. By 1683 in the English-speaking American colonies 'bit' had come to denote a Spanish/Mexican real, or one eighth of a peso. The peso was a common form of currency in the colonies. And in the early days of the United States, pesos were commonly used as dollar coins and real coins represented twelve and half cents, hence two bits equaled 25 cents.
When I die I want to go peacefully in my sleep like my grandpa. Not screaming and yelling like everyone else in the car he was driving.
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Quote:
Originally posted by belasera:
Wish I made $150 a day. Those are some pricey indentured servants they got there!
B]
Don't forget about inflation, Firefly is set in the far future. In today's money, I guess they make about $20 in a 10 hour workday. So they keep $1 day.
Yep, that sounds like indentured servitude to me.
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The real-life box droppin', man-ape gone wrong thing, without the pesky falling boxes
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