RE: my two cents

["Mandy Wells" <mwells -at- valadeo -dot- com>]

> P.S. I've been wondering what is the origin of your English (American?)
> expression "my 2 cents" to mean the contribution of your opinion.
>

>From the Word Detective:

Two Cents Plain


...the whole point of "my two cents worth," which originated in the late
19th century, is that it is a faux-modest, self-deprecating tactic used to
disarm your audience before you announce your opinion. This is especially
important in the event that your opinion turns out to be idiotic, in which
case you can always claim that you warned your listeners in advance that
your opinion was next to worthless...

"Two cents" or "two-center" has been a slang synonym for "very cheap" since
the middle of the 19th century, when the cheapest cigar available was
literally a "two- center." The U.S. Treasury Department actually issued a
two-cent coin in 1864, which was, incidentally, the first U.S. coin to bear
the motto "In God We Trust."...

for the whole explanation, and many others, see
http://www.word-detective.com/back-k.html#cents and
http://www.word-detective.com

And that'd be my 2 cents ($4.87 Canadian) worth,
Mandy


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