The wonderful world of currency. I was a little spooked to realize I didn't know where the word "dollar" came from. "Cent" is a bit more obvious, but "dollar" is weird. After looking it up, it really is weird. We get our dollars from Spanish pirates - yarrrgh.
But American currency isn't the only ugly duckling in the pond. I also went digging on the British pound, and they have more skeletons in their closet than Vincent Price's birthday party. We try to standardize measurements down to the light second, but currencies are bloody strange.
Anyone curious about other currencies out there? I'd be glad to go digging. Historical dirt is my specialty.
Nice to know the origins, made all the more interesting by the fact that my grandfather's name is Joachim. -I now feel more connected to my currency.
I have a 2 year old daughter that watches Mary Poppins at least twice a week. We will be out and about and she will randomly bust in to song feed the birds tuppins a bag... It got me wondering, what exactly are tuppins? Turns out its the word tuppence, which is slang for "two-pence". This makes sense since Michael, the boy in the movie, is holding two coins.
Aside: mk are you still collecting?