Activity

Hey everyone, I have a historical question that I’ve been wondering about.  Do any of you know the answers?  @seekjustice @valtmy @samantha-pen @selah-chelyah @ashira @the-inkspiller @lrc (I know there are a couple other people who visit this topic, but I can’t remember anyone else’s tag at the moment.  So I’ll just tag @everyone 😛 )

I’ve read several books, (and I think I may have possibly seen it in a film as well, but I’m not sure) in which children use pins as currency in the mid 1800s to early 1900s.  I’m wondering how that started, why pins in particular were used, and whether it has any relation to the phrase “pin money”.

My own hypothetical answers to these questions (without doing any research) are

1. It started because children did not have enough money to use actual coins as currency amongst themselves, but needed a standard price which could not be argued about, as would happen when bartering with different items of unstandardized values.

2. Pins were used because because you could buy 20 or 100 pins for a penny, (I don’t know the actual price) which would make the minuscule amount they were worth more reasonable for child currency.

3. It has no relation to pin money, which phrase I believe originated from a little bit of money one would keep “pinned” in a little corner of a handkerchief, pocket, or garment.

Now, I really have no idea whether any of my theories are correct, as I haven’t had time to do any research regarding this question.  And I might be completely off target…even aiming in the opposite direction.  So please, anyone with more information, enlighten me. 😀