The Danish West Indies and the BIT

[<k>]

Danish West Indies, 10 cents / 50 bit, 1905.

Here is a nice coin of the Danish West Indies, denominated in cents and "bits".

Who knows what gave the Danish the idea for a denomination called a "bit"?

[a3v1]

The bit was based upon, but unequal to the Danish homeland coinage.
Regards,
a3v1

[<k>]

The bit was based upon, but unequal to the Danish homeland coinage.
Regards,
a3v1

Hmm, a bit vague, a3v1. I'm not giving you any marks for that. Anyone else? Etymology of the "bit", perhaps?

[a3v1]

Not easy to satisfy, eh?
Originally a bit was a popular nickname for the 1 real coin circulating in Northern America in the 17th-18th century, valued at ⅛ of a Dollar, or 12½ cents.
Later on in many parts of the Caribbean coins were clipped in parts to be circulated as smaller units. Such parts of a coin were named "bits".
So far for the etymology.
The DWI bit was equal to a fifth of a cent.
Regards,
a3v1

[translateltd]

What I don't get is how we move from the original 1/8 of a dollar (hence the US expression "two bits" that is still current for 25c) to 1/500 of a dollar for the DWI coins.

[Figleaf]

Both the US quarter nickname and the DWI 10 cents use the word bit for a real, but the US "2 bits" refers to the Mexican peso of around 1790 and the DWI coin refers to the Spanish peso of 1905. In the intervening time, the peso had lost much in value, due to the loss of the Latin American colonies and political instability at home. The rate of 5 bits to the cent was in line with contemporary usage in the Caribbean.

Peter

[Harald]

The DWI currency at that time was the franc, which was subdivided into 100 bits. It was probably for convenience that for a transition period the coins carried also the previous denominations (the daler = 100 cents). Since the Danish sold their colony a little more than 10 years after the currency reform there was never coinage issued after the transition period.

So, in order to be correct the coin should actually be referred to a 50 bit (10 cents). But everybody gets it the other way round 

As it was said below, the name "bit" was wide spread in the Caribbean for small change, probably rather for cut up Spanish dollars (8 reales) than for 1 real coins.


cheers
--
Harald