This vids about 6 months old yet surpisingly I didn't find any previous posts on this new round that 'Quality Silver Bullion' have started manufacturing. Obviously based on the old Spanish Silver Dollar which was cut into quarters and then into 'eights' which has brought us the terms 'peices-of-eight' and 'bits'. A nice bit of marketing and niche' reseach by this company, kudos to them! Vid has 2 parts, the 2nd one, (not posted here) shows him chiseling the round into quarters. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJ4uPnNHK5A&feature=related
Not sure about the term "bits" ,but the origin of "pieces of eight " was in the Spanish Colonial coinage of the late 18th to early 19th century.It referred to the 8 Real silver coin issued in the new world. This divisible coinage is funky.No need to ask for change ..just take a cold chisel
Guy here has got the hammer and chisel out on one http://www.youtube.com/user/WhyMeWhySilver#p/u/60/Bn1fBTd5kJs
Thanks for the clarification boyou. Getting change in a silver currency is a topic often raised and I guess this is a great response to that. Although we should also understand that our expectation to recieve exact 'change' is (in an historical context) a new phenomenon (enon?). In the past, people would start an account with a merchant and credit and debit was tracked on a ledger and cleared (as close as possible) at the end of the month. It wasn't such a hassle because there weren't as many specialty shops around back then. Your local shop was also your green-grocer, butcher, hardware supplier, shoe salesman and haberdasher ... there's still a few old shops around with a 'motor spirit' bowser out the front too! And I tell you what, looking at how desparate things are at the post Christmas shops at the moment... there may be a few less specialist shops around in the near future...if you know what I mean :/ Part of the problem with expecting change with every transaction, particularly when inflation takes hold is the time wasted counting money. I was watching an SBS story in Pakistan where each transaction concluded with 1) one party handing over a huge bundle of paper bank notes, 2) the other party handing over the change in a smaller bundle of notes and 3) both parties then spending the next 10 mins leafing through stacks of cash as thick as the yellow-pages...it was insane!
