The John W Orth bit tokens

[brandm24]

Orth had an odd, though interesting, way of showing the value of his tokens. Each one had a bit (12 1/2 cents) or multiple bits value expressed by the number of horse's bits portrayed on the token. This one has a value of 12 1/2 cents or 1 bit. The highest value I've seen is 8 bits or $1.

More here on this interesting series in an article published in The E-Sylum. https://www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v15n17a13.html

Images courtesy of eBay ID Celluloid

Bruce

[brandm24]

The only record I came across in regard to Orth's business was a notice in a cigar and tobacco trade journal called "The Tobacco Leaf". The issue, dated April 5, 1905, notes that Orth recently sold his saloon and cigar business to Captain J.S. Hollong of Seattle.

Bruce

[Figleaf]

The denominations in bits is not as bizar as they seem.

Remember that the root of the US dollar is the Spanish colonial peso. Since the Ordinance of Medina del Campo (1497), the silver unit of account in the Spanish colonies was the real and since the reforms of 1566, there was a big silver coin of 8 reales, the real de a ocho or peso duro (heavyweight).

If you want a decimal currency based on the peso, the Spanish coins of 8, 4 and 2 reales simply become dollar, half dollar and quarter dollar. Below that denomination, you create your own, e.g 10 cents, 5 cents 2½ cents and 1 cent. No, wait 2½ is too complicated. No, wait let's have 2 cents and 3 cents coins. No, wait let's have nothing between 5 cents and 1 cent. You get the idea.

Let's jump to the Caribbean. There, they had cut pesos, sometimes cut in 4 or 8 pieces, forming real values, sometimes in 5 pieces, forming 20 decimal units, always cut in such a way that there was a profit in it.

Now, you have all the elements to understand the bits. For a good while, there were people more used to the peso of 8 reales than to the dollar (which was in very short supply in the first years anyway). If you continue to count in reales, you need a conversion rate, which is of course that 1 real equals 12½ cents. That value did not exist in a decimal system and was hard to find even as a coin, except as a peso cut in eight pieces, a bit. Ahh. Relief. So a quarter is two bits, a half is four bits and a dollar is 8 bits. When I first went to the US, there were still people calling a quarter a 2-bits.

Of course, this problem was not a US monopoly. Among Latin American official coins you will find the occasional 12½ and even 6¼ centavos/centimos coins, reflecting pre-decimal denominations.

Too bad for the horses, their bits are a pun only.

Peter

[brandm24]

I agree, values in bits aren't really unusual. I just thought the way it was presented by the image of the horse's bit was interesting.

Bruce