A popular name in many of the western parts of the United States to in- dicate the value of twelve and one-half cents. As, however, no coin of this de- nomination was ever struck, the expression " two bits, " i.e., the quarter dollar, was much more common.

In Cressy (Chap. 1) one of Bret Harte'e California!] talcs, a boy is paid " two bits " for giving some lessons.

In some parts of California the Dime or ten-cenl piece is called a " short bit."

Bit and Bung arc slang terms used by thieves in referring respectively to money and a purse. The old English dramatists, Thomas Dekker and Robert Greene, refer to these terms. Dekker in his Jests to make Merie , 1607 (repr. Grosart, ii. 328), says, " If they . . . once knew where the bung and the bit is . . . your purse and the money;" and in the same writer's Belman of London , 1608 (repr. iii. 122), we find a passage, " To learne . . . what store of Bit he hath in his bag." Greene in A Defense of Conny-catching, 1592 (Works, xi. 44) states, " Some . . . would venter all the byte in their boung at dice. "