TWO... BITS!!!

That's what a United States quarter represents.

Two bits.

You know the old routine, don't you?

"Shave

and a 

haircut -

two

bits!!!"

I don't even have to close my eyes to see Roger Rabbit doing that particular piece of comedy.

It's usually accompanied by door knocking to the beat of the bit of prose.

Funny stuff!

But you might well ask: Two bits of what?

Well, hold on to your hat because you're not going to believe this!

I had thought "two bits" was an English term, being that they were the country that -mostly- colonized the US.

See that word I stuck in there?

-mostly-

Other countries were here earlier, remember.

Other countries like, for instance, Spain.

There was a huge Spanish empire long before the British made one of their own.

That Spanish empire was rich with silver, minted in coins called reals.

No, not "reels"; give it a hit of Latin to make "ray OWLS".

Maybe you know them better as "pieces of eight".

You know how they came to have that moniker?

Most things didn't cost an entire real, so the coin would be cut to release the amount needed for whatever good or service was being bought.

Typically, things cost one-eighth of the coin, and that came to be called "one bit".

One-fourth of the real would thus be equal to two of the "one bit" portions.

One-fourth...

a quarter...

two bits...

and all learned while reading Smithsonian magazine in the sunroom.

That sounds like a good start to this leap day.