Origin of "neat as a pin"

The saying "as neat as a new pin" is defined in Brewer's Phrase and Fable on Bartleby.

I can't help but wonder if it's derived from the earlier saying,

"As fine as fippence, as neat as ninepence",

cited in James Howell's English Proverbs 1659.

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_the_origin_of_the_expression_neat_as_a_pin



I also saw a reference to the fact that historically the origin of the word "neat" meant "shiny". Pins are shiny. Don't know which is the real origin of the expression.

everybody knows "neat" means "without ice" as in make mine a George Dickel neat.

I knew that there was a reason that I liked you. George Dickel is my "poison" of choice. Do you know that at one time we had a whole lot of the Dickel bottles that were made up to look like powder horns? I could kick myself that we got rid of them. Must be worth a fortune now!

phoenix, a bit of trivia, the guy (don't remember his name) that created StarTrek prefered Goerge Dickel and used that very same bottle in some StarTrek scenes calling it "Soryian Brandy" sp?

reference to Saroyan, the writer, I'll bet..

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Saroyan