PREV ARTICLE       NEXT ARTICLE       FULL ISSUE       PREV FULL ISSUE      

V8 2005 INDEX       E-SYLUM ARCHIVE




The E-Sylum:  Volume 8, Number 42, October 2, 2005, Article 31

ON MONEY SAYINGS

Howard Spindel writes: "How about: It ain't worth a
plugged nickel!"

[So what exactly IS a plugged nickel, anyway? I
found an answer on the Word Detective web site:

""Not worth a plugged nickel" as an Americanism meaning
"worthless" first appeared in print about 1912, although we
can assume "plugged nickel", along with the similar "plugged
quarter" and "plugged peso," were in common usage long
before they made it into print. To "plug" a coin means to
remove its center, usually because the coin is made of a
precious metal such as gold or silver, and to replace the
missing part with a cheaper metal "plug." This sort of
larcenous messing with currency has been popular since
coins first appeared millennia ago, and Americans were
plugging French, English and other nations' coins back in
the days before we had our own to plug. A plugged nickel,
while it may be accepted at face value by an inattentive
shopkeeper, is, of course, fundamentally worthless."
Word-Detective.com
-Editor]

  Wayne Homren, Editor

Google
 
coinbooks.org Web
The Numismatic Bibliomania Society is a non-profit organization 
promoting numismatic literature. See our web site at coinbooks.org.

To submit items for publication in The E-Sylum, write to the Editor 
at this address: whomren@coinlibrary.com

To subscribe go to: https://my.binhost.com/lists/listinfo/esylum
Copyright © 2005 The Numismatic Bibliomania Society.

PREV ARTICLE       NEXT ARTICLE       FULL ISSUE       PREV FULL ISSUE      

V8 2005 INDEX       E-SYLUM ARCHIVE


Copyright © 1998 - 2005 The Numismatic Bibliomania Society (NBS)
All Rights Reserved.

NBS Home Page
Contact the NBS webmaster