Setanta wrote:The Spanish "dollar" (from thaler, don't let's get started on Charles V) was made into change by halving it, halving the halves, and then halving the quarters. Each of the eight pieces of change produced in that manner was called a "bit."
Correctamundo, to which I would only add that in those days, the value of the metal (silver, gold) of the coinage meant that the bits or pieces (cry of "Pieces of eight!" from Long John Silver's parrot) had an individual intrinsic value, so it was not illogical to slice up the coinage when required.
