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 Replies: 41 / Views: 14,639 |
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
19964 Posts |
Here we go again! LOLOLOL
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Moderator
 United States
189340 Posts |
At least this one seems to come up less often than the time travel threads!  |
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
838 Posts |
Wow - I'm glad everyone seems to have lightened up a bit on this!
I've always found it ironic that the uptight people on saying "cent" have no problem prefixing it with "Indian Head", despite Columbus' mistaking Native Americans for Indians! (Seems to me like a bigger abuse of language than "penny" versus "cent".) Bottom line: a lot of our language comes from dubious origins. Who cares?
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
17884 Posts |
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Say what you want, but this is OUR language and we can say what we want, call stuff what we want, it's OUR language. So if I feel you are a truly fine fellow and I want to call such a person an idiot, I can do that because it is OUR language and we can say what we want. After all I know what I mean. Unfortunately OTHER people don't know what I mean and will either get mad at me for what I said because they don't know what I mean. And some people may form an improper opinion of you because they assume I mean one thing when I actually meant something else. How to prevent such confusion? Use the proper terms and avoid slang. A cent is a cent and a penny is a penny and if there is a chance of ambiguity as to where a particular cent or penny comes from, preface the term with the location. Proper use of language reduces confusion or misunderstanding. (An no I did not call Carl an idiot. I disagree with his sometimes but I do think he is a fine fellow.) |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2600 Posts |
  Kind of reminds me of watching the Friday night fights on TV as a boy. Jim hehehehe |
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Valued Member
United States
436 Posts |
If this topic pops up so much then why not make a sticky with the "top ten most asked numismatic questions" and put this at the top?
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
20753 Posts |
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If this topic pops up so much then why not make a sticky with the "top ten most asked numismatic questions" and put this at the top?
Because then there would have to be a sticky for how many stickies we hhave. Then someone would say lets have a sticky to explain stickies.  Quote:
(An no I did not call Carl an idiot. I disagree with his sometimes but I do think he is a fine fellow.)
First time anyone said not an idiot. And as to correcting grammar, it should have been "I disagree with HIM" not his. Gotcha. And we all will still say other names for our monitary system such as 2 bits, C-note, ten spot, saw buck, one buck, etc. And if our money was supposed to be on the metric system, what is a quarter dollar? Nnot exactly a multiple of 10? All proves there just AIN'T no wrong stuff in what we say. |
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
17884 Posts |
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And as to correcting grammar, it should have been "I disagree with HIM" not his. Gotcha. Not bad grammar, lousy typing, and no proofreading. |
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Rest in Peace
United States
1729 Posts |
Well, we DID use pennies in the colonies at least through the Revolutionary War. And we DID use nickels @ 3¢ each until shortly after the Civil War Between the North and South States and a Dominion (gotta be VERY careful here with my choice of words ... must ... be ... EXACT!) And as a retired English teacher I DO know the value of using exact language. So I use "cent" when I'm talking to collectors and dealers and "pennies" when I'm talking to most other folks.
So do I speak "American" or "English" or both? Actually, yo quiero Taco Bell.
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
17884 Posts |
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Well, we DID use pennies in the colonies at least through the Revolutionary War Half Pennies yes, pennies no. There were no pennies at the time. Great Britain hadn't struck any pennies for almost a hundred years. And those were small silver coins not coppers. We struck copper cents three years before Britain ever struck copper pennies. The "pennies" that our cents were linked to by slang were probably not British (which would have been around fifty pennies to the dollar) but the New York penny which was a Money of account and were valued at 90 pennies per dollar. New York was a major trading partner with the other states and everyone was familiar with the New York money rates. Since the cent and penny were both close to the same value it is not surprising that the new cent was called by the name of the better known New York Penny. |
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
20753 Posts |
To sum it all up, if you walk down any street in the USA and ask everyone you see what is this thing in your hand and you have a PENNY in your hand, bet you'ld hear PENNY 99.99999% of the time. Maybe a slight exageration, but really close to 99.98% if rounded off. It is odd that we all say things like 10 Cents, 50 Cents but when it comes to PENNIES, almost everyone says PENNIES.  Except a few on this forum of course and eventually they too will yield  |
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
11951 Posts |
Is there any thought to ... maybe ... we should start calling nickels and dimes .. 5 and 10 penny coins ... ... just a thought
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Moderator
United States
189340 Posts |
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Except a few on this forum of course and eventually they too will yield Never!  In the context of the Community forums, they are cents. In the context of casual conversation with the laypeople, they are pennies. I prefer to call them cents. I will often pick on people for calling them pennies, but only in fun; it is a good way to measure their numismatic interests.  |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
677 Posts |
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Is there any thought to ... maybe ... we should start calling nickels and dimes .. 5 and 10 penny coins Or...we could call dimes 2 nickel coins. Or a quarter could be a 5 nickel coin...or a 2 1/2 dime coin... |
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Pillar of the Community
3660 Posts |
Even the TPGs are confused on this issue; labeling this no pennies coin in this fashion:  |
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Replies: 41 / Views: 14,639 |
First Page
Posted 01/11/2010 3:52 pm
