Wednesday, April 17, 2013

"Case" Standing Liberty U.S. Quarter




I used to handle quarters like the one above when I was a child. Large silver content of maybe 70 to 80% pure silver in U.S. coins up until 1965.

One of my pet peeves is about all the dead presidents on U.S. money, cult of personality and all that.  That the symbols of liberty are much more fitting in a democracy.



I ran into the term “case quarter” some twenty five years ago. Never heard it before or since. It is I believe a regional term from the south. And more info:

caser/case = five shillings (5/-), a crown coin. Seems to have surfaced first as caser in Australia in the mid-1800s from the Yiddish (Jewish European/Hebrew dialect) kesef meaning silver, where (in Australia) it also meant a five year prison term. Caser was slang also for a US dollar coin, and the US/Autralian slang logically transferred to English, either or all because of the reference to silver coin, dollar slang for a crown, or the comparable value, as was.
Five shillings being ¼ one quarter of twenty shillings or a pound of the old style English money changed into decimal system in the 1970s. One hundred pence now equals a pound etc.



.

No comments:

Post a Comment