America: The Only Country That Does This With Nails
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- čas přidán 22. 03. 2024
- Why are nails measured in pennies, and why does it make no sense? You know I love America, but the way we measure nails is kinda dumb.
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You have to remember the England connection, all the way through. They don't have cents, they have pence. Hence "penny". The American Colonies also originally used Pounds and Pence, until after the War of Independence. Some things simply carried on from common usage
Continental currency was issued in dollars starting in 1775, soon after the war began. It was also soon worthless due to far too many being printed and far too few retired, and British currency continued to be used in parallel in commerce. New notes (also in dollars) were issued on a more limited basis in 1781, backed by a wealthy merchant named Robert Morris and by French money. These did not collapse the way the first ones did.
Something I think is interesting is that when I think of a "penny" I think of the actual coin itself. Nobody would ever describe the cost of something as "5 pennies", one would say "5 cents".
@@alexandersmith4796 A penny and a cent are two different things. In the U.S. we have dollars ($) and cents (¢) we don't have pennies. In the UK they have pounds (£) and penny (d) single and pence (d) plural. (1 penny two pence) Prior to 1971 you also had the shilling (s). There were 20 shillings to a pound and 12 pence to a shilling. The penny was further divided into half pennies and quarter pennies (farthings). Then you had 3 pence and six pence coins, the Florin was 2 shillings, the Half crown 2s6d, the Crown 5s and the Guinea £1/1s. Decimalization was introduced into the Thirteen Colonies by the American Revolution, and then enshrined in US law by the Coinage Act of 1792. Bet you are glad of that.
@@bobcosgrove3235 I think just about every american would tell you that the 1 cent piece is called a penny unless they literally work in the US mint or something. But regardless I was simply commenting on how the names of the coins are interesting bc they represent the coin, which usually is in the context of their value, but not necessarily (e.g. if you were dealing with, say, transporting a bunch of quarters and needed to deal with the weight, the dollar amount isn't necessarily relevant but the physical properties of a quarter coin would be).
im so glad you said this, i had honestly forgot but now that you said it i actually remember that
the England connection, all the way through. They don't have cents, they have pence. Hence "penny". The American Colonies also originally used Pounds and Pence, until after the War of Independence. Some things simply carried on from common usage😌😌😌
In Australia, before going to metric currency in 1966, we used Pounds, Shillings & Pence, much like the UK at the time. It was always shown using stylised small - l, s and d, which I believe was short for the Latin - Libra, Solidus & Dinarius.
I have worked in construction since I was 16 years old. I am a journeyman carpenter and never knew why we called them by these terms. Thanks for clearing it up.
I'm a retired Canadian journeyman carpenter and almost 50 years later, it's finally nice to know what this mysterious penny size convention was about...
We used 16 penny duplex nails for form work that had a double head so they were easy to pull. Drive the nail to the first head and the other one sticks up so they are easy to pull and get the forms apart. We used 16 penny common nails with one head to build forms and things that were made to stay together. I thought 16D meant duplex. People would stock the trailer with nails and we just used them. I never really looked at the boxes just kinda knew which nails went where. 36 years and I still know nothing.
Superb video. Just as penny and bucks are “nicknames” for cent and dollars, I will throw people off by referring to their watch as a timepiece.
Me: “Wow that is a nice timepiece you have there”
Co-worker: “Huh?…Do you mean my watch?”
He died because he had a "bum ticker."
Lives of great men all remind us
We can make our lives sublime,
And, departing, leave behind us
Footprints on the sands of time -H.W.Longfellow
Timepiece at least makes sense, even if you don't know where it comes from.
A watch is a piece of equipment meant to help you keep track of the time.
But if you didn't know what nails and pennies had to do with each other, you'd never guess what it meant.
Thanks. One of the great inequities of life is that people will offer a penny for your thoughts... but then they want your two cents worth.
A penny is a thought, two cents is an opinion. Worth a lot more.
Mmmm
THAT IS SO DEEP!!!! HAVE YOU THOUGHT ABOUT MOTIVATIONAL SPEAKER??????
@@rafaelonate7327 I can appreciate your sarcasm, but was it necessary to do it in all caps? No need to yell. It was just a little joke, and here's another one for you. Politicians should be limited to two terms........ one in office, and one in prison!
@@williamwelch7 limited to 2 eligible for 3 ... if they do good they can have 2 terms if they don't they NEED 3 lol
America is not doing things their own specific way, all the weights and measures systems in the US were imported from England by the original settlers using the old english system, using pecks and bushells etc for dry measure, and what is now known as US quarts and gallons for liquids. The British weights and measures system was updated and standardised as the Imperial weights and measures system in 1824, America just carried on using the old system! It's not a mystery!
Thomas Jefferson devised US Customary Units in 1789. Being the author of the Declaration of Independence I think we all know how he felt about Merry old England. It probably struck in his craw that he even spoke English. But that's how it was. I'm curious where you think US Colonists got British standards from? Do you think the Crown sent us some? The war wasn't concluded until 1812. So we still weren't on the best of terms then. At that point Jefferson was still a traitor. So I just don't see the king being too generous with him. Perhaps George was a bigger man than I know though?
@@1pcfred odd that he used the same names as the British units then?
@@philhermetic why is it odd? He did speak English. Should he have made up gibberish terms that no one understood? Now that truly would have been odd. What was odd was how the metric symposium completely screwed him over. But that's a story for another day. Ya just gotta love Eurotrash.
Actually the US liquid measure of pints & gallons are smaller that the UK Imperial pints & gallons. In the US version a pint is 16 fl.oz. (fluid ounces) whereas the UK has the pint as 20 fl.oz - 25% bigger.
The Yanks say "A pint's a pound the world around" which just isn't true, whereas we in the UK would say "A pint of water weighs a pound & a quarter", which is true for us.
Excuses
The UK, before decimalisation sometime in the 1970s, used pounds, shillings and pence. 12 pennies in a shilling and 20 shillings in a pound - not difficult at all! "Why make things simple when they can be difficult", right? Anyway, pennies, when shown on their own on a price label, used to be designated as a small "d" behind the number as in 10d
See what 2000 years of inflation can do: a silver denarius was maybe something like a day's wage. 20 working days in a month: shilling is a month's wage, 12 shillings makes a year.
@@timgerk3262 Not quite right, 12 pennies make a shilling, 20 shillings make a pound, therefore 240 pennies make a pound.
@@petarnovakovich240 mea culpa.
I tried measuring once. It usually means another trip to the lumber store. 🤨
Huh, High School shop teacher was wrong. He said it was the price per pound of nails “back in the day.”
Money conversions is as much fun as measuring in metric.
I thought ten a penny nails was the going rate in the era when blacksmiths hammered out nails in the slot on anvils, perhaps around the same time that penny was a standard days wage for feudal laborers. There was a time when people used to burn their houses down to get their nails back when moving.
There's a grain of truth to this, but it wasn't a regular practice. In 1640, the colony of Virginia passed a law that said that if you were going to abandon the plantation that you leased from the king, you couldn't burn the buildings to get the nails. Instead, two "indifferent" men would estimate the number of nails used and the colony would give that many nails to you so you didn't have a reason to burn the buildings. The buildings at the time were not made well, as most plantation operators were there to try to turn some profit in a few years and return to England, and few resources were available for building anything new. Between these issues, the colony was trying to keep *something* on the plantations for the next lessor, even if it wasn't all that good, as it's easier to repair than build from scratch. Eventually, people made these their long-term homes and built them better, and the law was noblonger necessary.
Those uncommon situations were expanded over time into the myth that it was common practice to burn buildings to get back the nails, which just doesn't make economic sense.
Hilarious and informative. I have absolutely no use for this information, but appreciate knowing it :p
(Hullo from Metric Land)
From the US Mint's own store page describing what's in a proof set:
- One Kennedy Half Dollar
- One Roosevelt Dime
- One Jefferson Nickel
- One Lincoln Penny
If the term "penny" is used by the Feds, I think it's official enough.
I have flummoxed .EU friends by using the terms "quarter", "dime" and "nickel". They had NO idea what I was talking about. They understood "quarter" when I explained it. They were not happy with "dime" and "nickel" since they are random words that have nothing to do with their fractional denomination. Sure, maybe they should be called "tenth" and "twentieth", but I don't see that happening anytime soon.
From Wikipedia "“Dime” is based on the Latin word “decimus,” meaning “one tenth.” The French used the word “disme” in the 1500s when they came up with the idea of money divided into ten parts. In America, the spelling changed from “disme” to “dime.”"
And...
"In 1865, Mint Director James Pollock thought that a five-cent coin made of nickel alloy would be a good trade for the five-cent paper notes that were circulating then. It turned out to be a good replacement for the half dime, too!"
I'm not sure how seriously you meant this, but marketing and sales copy is not generally a sound way to get official specifications or legal information. Even if it's an officially authorized store.
@@5Iron It just occurred to me that a half dime could be called a hemidime. I doubt it's going to catch on tho. Maybe I'll try calling nickels hemidimes just to see people's reactions.
Fun fact , In ye old briton you could tell how many different coins you had just by weight of the lot. a pound of coins was worth ...a pound
Dime comes from "Deci" which is 1/10th.
I've always understood that a quarter is 25cents, a dime is 10cents & a nickel is 5cents.
What puzzles me is why you insist on calling a quarter of something (a cake for example) as a fourth instead of a quarter, after all you don't say that something (a cake for example) is cut in two ths instead of halves, so why would you say a (cake again) is cut in fourths & not quarters?
💙 very cool, nailed it!
I always devour information like this because it's fascinating. I learned the distinction in my teens, but today I learned that there are fractional increments between the lengths. I thought the increments were legacy based and not especially in length order.
The distinction of "common" and "box" nails was part of the legacy as well I thought. I built a few things and could make a run at driving a 16d nail with one hit, but preferred the 12 and 14 oz. hammer weight to the 16/18 oz. thumb manglers. I also don't like launching missiles trying to economize on swings, it just makes more work. Plus, I could straighten a bending nail in the act of hammering it in. Box nails can be bendy if you hit a knot or work with Oak.
Today: thanks to 20volt cordless drills, I don't know which end of the hammer to hold :).
thanks for the great vid.
Awww yes! Finally! Clear as mud! Thank you!
Didn't know about the penny and love the shirt. Thanks for sharing.
The world can be quite conveniently divided thus:
- Countries who use metric measurements
- Countries who have landed men on the moon
Extremely strong corollary.
Countries who have landed men on the moon
yes using metric measurements
@@firefly5684 Quite right, NASA & other scientific places use the metric SI (System Internationale) units, metres, kilograms, litres etc.
@@petarnovakovich240 Not as much back when they were actually landing men on the moon. They used largely freedom measurements, not as much metric from what I understand.
"The world can be quite conveniently divided thus:"
- Countries who use metric measurements
- Country with the largest national debt and the most cowardly president (Biden)
In Canada virtually all Nails have the 'letter d' for Pennies marked on the boxes, It's no common but some older guys still ask for nails by penny size.
I think the only country with more complex systems of measure than the US is Canada. We use all metric, all US, and have holdover units from the UK and most tradies can convert in their heads from one type to another. Not to mention slang names for certain sizes not used anywhere else.
...and everything is held together by #2 Robinson screws anyway. :)
Us older folk in the UK also do that, I grew up with Imperial measures initially & then was introduced to the Metric System later in school, I can convert between them both ways in my head.
@@dragondemonsyne I heard all this hype about how great robbys were and I had never liked them much so I did a mit of investigation. They are very middle of the pack, better than Phillips (the worst) and Pozi drive, the second worst. In the middle you have Robinson then you have the good ones. 6 side "Allen" types are the second best fastener type with of course Torx being the best by far. I have always used Torx (or star) drive is what I have used since the early 90s. (with all the chat about Robinson I had to check it out)
@@petarnovakovich240 Same, I am a machinist in the US and use what ever system is needed depending on the job and also convert them in my head.
@@dragondemonsyne Damn Straight..
The cost of iron or smelting iron was also an issue way back in Roman days, since the blacksmith was also a Jack of all trades.
The 1cent coin in Canada was officially called a penny. It was phased out more than 20 years ago. But Canada also changed over to the metric system back in the 70s as well.
So did America. Officially 'preferred system' since 1975.
Boxes of US nails are clearly marked with their actual size in addition to the Penny. I’ve been doing carpentry for 45 years here and have never referred to nails by Penny.
Well maybe you should start. You probably want to work doctors hours and earn doctors wages. So you might as well be as confusing as doctors are too.
@@1pcfred actually, all the carpentry work I have done over the years has been for free. I’ve never charged a cent for any of it. It’s a side gig for community nonprofits.
@@timothybaker8234 If you built and maintained wooden structures then you are a carpenter. If you built tables, cabinets, and chairs you are a woodworker. I am a carpenter have been for 40 yrs not a woodworker. Not because I got paid but what I did. I built houses, garages, and other wooden structures.
I must agree with many of the comments here. (so very rare) We took many things that were originally Eurotrash and made them better.
Bruh. A Fiddler on the Roof jump cut? You have a new subscriber my man.
When the first one cent piece was minted we were still using British pennies as legal tender. Americans called the new cent piece a penny out of habit.
Gibson famously named their early electric guitars after their cost. An ES-125 was $125, ES-335/$335, ES0355/$355 are some examples.
NEATO! Thanky!
I was taught that the penny designation, was based on the weight of the nail, in penny weights. A pennyweight is equal to 24-grains, or 1.56-grams. Since the minted coins all weighed the same, they were commonly used as weights on the balance scales of the time. And you were buying nails by weight. So a pound of sixteen penny cut nails, should contain 19-nails.
As we transitioned away from cut nails to the modern, machine produced, nails the penny designation for the old cut nails, morphed into the length designation it is used as today.
This one amazed me as that I was under the impression that the reason the USA did things differently was because this was completely opposite of England (aka turning their back on them). So, to hear this was still a reference back to them..that surprised me.
We never really turned our backs on England we’ve always envied them and been enamored by them. Look how people still go crazy for the royal family.
@michaeldecker2725 I was thinking more along the lines of back in the days of the War of Independence. As colonies threw British rules, doing the opposite of them (the British) was another way of showing that they were no longer under their control.
@@paulabraden974I don’t think it really worked that way. England had long-established colonies here. The colonists had brought all their English ways of measuring (and naming) things to this continent when they arrived and those terms had been established for over 130 years or so before the American Revolution. The Revolutionary years upset the equilibrium of the populace - so many changes to life as they knew it! Do you imagine that all the tinkers and carpenters and blacksmiths and cobblers would want even MORE changes? Something like a “politically correct” change in terms for all the supplies they needed to cause more complications to their everyday lives? No, these people were traditionalists and traditionalists rarely ask for changes. They clung to the terms they knew, like they clung to the laws they knew (we still use many of those laws), and the traditions they knew. They just threw out the heavy-handed distantly-controlled government (and tax authorities) and began an experiment in self-ruled government.
England, on the other hand, has evolved away from those old hardware terms, as it has increasingly (but not totally) adopted metric measurements. England is influenced by its trading partners in Europe which started to use the metric system about 1790. More than 200 years later, Americans are so averse to change that we still have not made the change to the much more sensible metric system in everyday life! 😊
Regarding 3:16, the Denarius was not the smallest coin available in ancient Rome. Instead the lowest denomination coin available in ancient Rome was the "Quadrans" which was made from bronze. One silver Denarius was worth 64 bronze Quadrans in ancient Rome. In England, the Penny was not the smallest coin available. Instead the lowest denomination coin available in England was the Farthing. One Penny was worth 4 Farthings. 240 Pennies were worth one Pound Sterling. Regarding 1:41, "nickel" coins are actually cupronickel alloy with considerably more copper in them than nickel.
Thanks! Always wondered...
and England used 'd' for denarius/penny until the early 1970s when we decimalised
United States currency has always been decimilized. That's why in modern times it is the World's banking currency. "Cent" is from the latin "centum" meaning "100" as in "century, or egads! Centigrade! Centimeter!!!. 100 "cents" (pennies) in a dollar, twenty 5 "cent" pieces (nickels) in a dollar, ten 10 "cent" pieces (dimes) in a dollar, four 25 "cent" "quarters", and finally, two 50 "cent" pieces (half dollars). Then the bills: one dollar bills, very very rarely a two dollar bill, five dollar bills, ten dollar bills, twenty dollar bills, fifty dollar bills, and one-hundred dollar bills, and then rarely some larger bills like 500s and 1,000s and above.
You’re certainly right about us and traditions. After working on mostly motorcycles for a good long while, I hate when people just can’t deal with metric. It’s the simplest system there is. Even US automakers switched long ago. And don’t start on pipe sizes. 🤣
Who says anyone can't deal with metric? Some simply choose to not use an inferior system is all. Metric is decimal based and US Customary is duodecimal. The prefix duo means two as we all know so our system is mathematically twice as good as metric. If you think metric is so great then go try and divide a pie up into 10 equal pieces and tell me how simple that is.
@@1pcfred 36 degree angles between slices - easy as pie.
@@petarnovakovich240 and just how do I measure 36 degrees in my kitchen?
@1pcfred
Exactly how you measure fifths
Also, 12 isn't divisible by 10. Nor is 16 divisible by 10
Try measuring out 4 and 23/40 in. In metric, you just use as many decimal points as you need
@@1pcfred if you’re hungry, you don’t divide pie .
The "American" way for sizing/selling nails comes from England.
A 16 penny nail is called a 16 penny nail because it used to cost 16 pennies to buy 100 (or 120*) of that size nail.
There is no mystery to this.
* referred to as a "long hundred" back in the day.
When you said why we do thing I saw Chaim Topol as Tevye in my minds eye then Boom you use that scene.
The penny wasn't the smallest coin used in Medival England, it was 1/240 of a pound wich was the same weight as the Roman Denair
Great video! Though I was resistant at first, we really should be stating measurements in metric. It's easier to math, and puts everyone doing work on the same page with no need for conversion. Let's not forget the $300M+ spacecraft loss due to confusion over measurement standards...
Ponder on this subject all you want. I'm just going to put another dime in the jukebox baby because, I LOVE ROCK 'N Roll!
Yep, knew the ‘1 cent piece’ over ‘penny’. Grew up with grandfather a big coin collector and learned this when I was 7 or 8 in the early 70’s.
Currently the lowest denomination British coin is the 1 pence piece. It’s not a penny and most Brits under 43 might never has seen a “penny Piece.
Before 1984 we has a £ = Pound - and still do
10 “Bob” note - 10 shilling note.
Half a crown - 2 shillings and 6 pence
A “florin” or 2 Bob bit - 2 shilling
A shilling - a 20th of a £
12 pennies in a shilling 240 pennies to 1 £
It gets better.
Before 1964 we had Half Pennies, giving 480 half pennies to a pound (I can remember these)
Before 1960 we had farthings, 2 farthings is a half penny, 4 is a penny and…….960 farthings to one Pound
The bar staff needed to be able the workout the cost of a drinks order in their head, before they could get a job behind the bar 😮
Decimal currency is so much easier with an electronic till 😂
In England the small denomination copper coin has/had 1 Penny, written on it. At least 40 years ago,
Try centuries not years.
So the next time I tell a new guy at work to get me a board stretcher I will also have him bring me a box of 11D nails!
Hi, Your hand hammer video has no link associated with it. Thanks for sharing.
In 1975 Congress passed the Metric Conversion Act so officially the US is metric, but as they put no enforcement into the change unlike other countries people stayed with what they new, tradition and imperial. If there was no enforcement in Europe I'm sure they would have stayed with local systems too.
There is actually. All US customary measurements are defined in terms of metric measurements. A mile is officially 1.6 km
In Canada meat is still priced in pounds (as well as Kilograms), we still buy beer by the pint and whiskey comes in 40 ounce bottles.
@minuteman4199 as someone who lived through the conversion to metric in my teens, I know that originally everything except liquor, and a few other things HAD to be priced in metric and Imperal units were BANNED from being displayed or used in the Canadian marketplace. The law that forced that must have had a sunset clause because Imperal measurements didn't start to reappear until I believe the mid to late 90s. Also, liquor that is imported into Canada from the US, maybe in Imperial, but anything bottled in Canada is in metric. All federal & provincial/territorial taxes are based on metric measurements. I used to drive down to Pembina, ND, and buy 6-10 one litre bottles of this Butterscotch Schnapps I love and then just turn around and go back to the border and pay all the federal & provincial taxes.
@@EvilDaveCanada When was the last time you went into a pub and ordered a liter of beer?
Cost of a 16d nail nowadays at HomeCheapo
16d $6.27 per lb./47 nails per pound = .13 cents per nail.
With just a little more inflation, a 16d will actually = 16 cents per nail. Then the system will actually make sense for a while.💡
go to a few local auctions and you can build a proper nail/screw/fastener collection in no time...super cheap
I had no idea that penny was slang. I'm still on my first cup of coffee and I've already learned something, thanks! I'm off to find out if a nickel is also slang.
yea can you believe that???? penny is slang just like heavy,
example: i mess with this heavy
other example: man he is soo heavy
you see how it has two different meaning?
NOW THAT MY FRIEND IS SLANG!!!!!!!
sorry about the enthusiasm, im just a professor for poetry at harvard so i get really excited about these things.
I will say be careful with the word nickel, it does sound like a racial term if you say it fast!!!
Thank you for reading as i am very passionate
Professor out!!
PEACE🤗🤗✌✌✌
Nickels were originally made out of the metal Nickel hence the name.
@@paulmartin2348 Haha yes of course. I've heard and read about that quite a few times as a professor. In fact i even had my students write me a 500 word essay over it.
Try finding the difference between sheet metal and plate metal, or paper vs cardstock.
in gauges, the size is how many thicknesses make an inch, 15 gauge takes 15 thicknesses to make an inch, 23 gauge takes 23 to make an inch, etc. at least it once was, manufacturers found they could reduce the diameter and save in raw materials, making a cheaper product. the same in wire sizes, sheet steel, etc.
Not quite only thiner for a cheaper product. Materials are more consistent now, and metal better alloys. You use the appropriate material, and you get the same performance with less.
The cheaper (less money) carries over the entire supply chain with less bulk and weight for transport of a given number of the item.
Below I have a question from one of your past videos on;
TIGHTENING OR REPLACING THE SEAT ON A COMMODE
.... Posting here because I don't know if you look at comments from years ago 🤔
★ Lock in clever nuts !!!
WHERE CAN I BUY THEM ??? PLEASE GIVE A LINK !
Gauge is also used in sheet metal, and electrical conductors.
It is more than measurements.
American woodworkers call a saw alignment gauge a 'saw jointer' (!)
Americans call maize 'corn', not seeming to realize that all cereal grains are corn (wheat, barley, etc.)
But with measurements, the least sensible practice is using fractions, instead of decimals.
Actually we are not worthless and use the most efficient way to measure. When doing construction measuring with fractions is much preferred. Once I because a machinist everything is base 10 measuring in "Thousandths of an Inch". If something requires metric measurements I use them and can convert back and forth in my head if needed. I realize this may be difficult for you to understand but some people still have brains that actually function.
@@paulmartin2348 You attribute to me an aggression that does not exist. Please address my assertions, not me. Attacking your interlocutor is a prime indication that you cannot refute what they say.
'when doing construction, measuring in fractions is much preferred'- perhaps; but why? Is it logical? 'Using our brains' means using reason; what is the reason for using fractions?
'Thou'- fine, but not accurate enough. So you have to add 'tenths'. Clumsy at best. And beyond that?
Note that this was not a metric vs imperial comment! I was talking about fractions, not the base units used. That is an argument already lost- 95% of the world's population are openly metric, and serious engineering (including all vehicles etc) has been metric in the US since the 70s.
It actually originated in England. Yeah, England doesn't use it now, but it originally referred to the cost of 120 nails in pence, or pennies in England.
Interesting. I thought it was based on the British penny but thought it had to do with either the size of the coin or the amount of metal in the coin. Never knew it was based on price per 100.
Why is the save icon still a floppy disk when the majority of people who click it have never seen a floppy disk in person?
Thanks.
4:35 Was that Fiddler on the Roof?
Yes. It was.
Peaceful Skies.
The cent/penny situation is even more complicated. In England in 1776 12pence=1 shilling. 20shilling=1pound sterling. So 240pence=1 pound. The dollar was 100 cents. So to avoid people thinking the 1cent was less valuable, 1/100 instead of 1/240, the Founding Fathers made sure to name it differently. I have read that Hamilton ordered this, but am skeptical in the absence of more proof.
Denarius was not the lowest value coin! Rather, that unit of account underwent inflation and became the english penny, the French denier and a few others. The english penny was still made in silver and then debased silver until c.1500 (off the top of my head). By 1967 in its last years of mintage, it was a bronze coin. The denier and the penny disappeared with decimalisation and so with it did the last traces of the denarius, unless you think of the pound as being 240 denarii.
D meaning penny comes from £ s d, the old English/pre-decimalisation currency.
The £ is from the Latin Librum = pound.
s is from the Latin Solidus = shilling
d is from Latin denarius = penny.
I'm British (Welsh) & I knew that your smallest coin is the 1cent & penny is a nickname.
Before decimalisation & the metric system in the UK, we'd use inches for the length of nails & wiregauge for the thickness.
a 16d nail in 1420/600 years ago would have been worth two days labor in 1420.
1 shilling/20p = £32.15 = $40.63 vs the skilled median wages of 2024 in US = $244 two days labor (£193.05) Nails are worth about 6x less in 2024 than in 1420.
1 shilling = 5p not 20p
Much like our pronunciation (New England speech is much closer to what English sounded like in England 200 years ago than what they speak now), spelling, and a measurements, nail and shotgun sizes are all originally British.
The brads _are_ measured by it's thickness, wires are measured in gauges.
We just never bothered to change any of it.
A language expert I knew told me the closest to Elizabethian English is now in the backwoods of Appalachia. Someone I tend to trust since the not only were a professional translater but could identify an English speaker by country and region..for some the county of origin
So I'm a millennial, and spent my college days working construction. While I have certainly seen a ton of older guys use the penny names I think it's more common now days to just call them by length/material. Normally I would say 3in zink for example if I'm asking someone to pick up a box or just simply the length if they know what I'm using them for.
4:00 I new penn was just a nickname since I was like 9 or 10 years old
I knew what "new" meant when I was 6.
Old English money is even stranger than described in this video. Up to 1973 we had LSD (L=Pounds, S=Shillings and D=pennies) but the smallest coin was the farthing (1/4 penny). A pound was made up of 20 shillings each of 12 pence making 240 pence in the pound. Another odd coin was the half-crown worth two shillings and sixpence. To make things worse we had the guinea coin which was 21 shillings but made of gold and worth far more than the face value. There were also other strange coins like the half-guinea and the sovereign which were made out of gold and generally also worth far more than their face value. Thank goodness we went decimal in 1973 with an old shilling being worth five new pence making twenty shillings worth one pound I think I'd have a breakdown trying to compute the length of multi-penny nails.
Decades ago I can remember buying 8d nails for sheathing and 16d nails for framing. I didn't realize that was still a thing because I almost never drive nails with a hammer. Gun nails are identified by their length and the tool they fit in.
Now you should do a video where you explain why 18ga is skinnier than 16ga, because who doesn't want to hear about the history of the extrusion process?
Do they still have box nails and common nails?
Wire isn't extruded, it is drawn. Thick material is passed through progressively thinner dies to reduce the diameter and increase the length of it. At one time your 18 ga wire was 16 ga but they kept on pulling on it. That made it skinnier. The gauges are the ideals when performing the process. You can only neck the metal down so much at a time. It all does have to work after all. So a chart that looks arbitrary is actually based on the reality of physical limitations. Which end users wouldn't be aware of. We buy wire, we don't try to make the stuff. But if we did then the gauges would make a lot more sense to us.
Wire guage is the number of times it's drawn to reach that thickness (diameter). It's been standardized since materials other than pure copper (it may have been gold used as the standard, i don't remember)are drawn to size
A penny is actually 2 pence coin back in the old days of England before they went metric. In British colonies especially in the West Indies/ Caribbean that used dollars and cents as their currency, a penny was two cents. This took me a little while to get used to here in the US. lol
The "new" decimal penny is supposedly equal to 2.4 "old" pennies.
Yo, likewise, a "dollar" is a unit of measure. They are federal reserve notes. And document representing a debt.
2:03 John Moschitta!
Denarius was a silver coin. The English one comes from Charlemagne. Re-issued the Roman currencies. Denarius was a small silver coin for everyday money; solidus was a small gold coin for big purchases; and the librum was a big coin that mostly existed as an accounting unit.
Denarius got nicknamed penny, and eventually the debased coin was struck (old minting) as a copper coin. Hence the “d”.
The solidus was eventually nicknamed shilling and was replaced with silver.
The librum got the nickname “pound sterling” because the coin was supposed to be worth a pound of sterling silver. Though this was eventually degraded as well. Hence why “L” is used for pounds.
"or something like that" - you need to know a little something about silver as currency in ancient times. Silver/gold were weighed in Troy Oz, and a Troy Oz was the basis for making pennies/denarii. A Troy Oz could yield 20 pennies and that division of the ounce became known as pennyweights. It is not unusual to see a cast of gold or silver call for 130 pennyweight of material and it is abbreviated as DWT.
If you really want to get challenged on measurements, look at the cross slide on a lathe. The dials are either in diameter mode or radius mode. Usually not a problem unless you're jumping from one machine to another with different modes and without a DRO.
Like Europe, I got a sudden flashing headache from the 1:00 image and threw myself over the stop button.
Thank you for the video.
THIS is precisely the sort of thing I have loved learning my entire life.
PBS used to be the "home" of "Things I Learned That Had Little Bearing On My Life" except to make me happy. You know... USELESS FACTS!
Discovery and History and the other channels USED to have this sort of info presented but now... it is just ... I don't know... "naked man eats dirt and yells at tv" ??? Not certain. Ghost Plumbers or something.... ANYHOO....
THANKS!
Senior citizen, and didn’t know US currency didn’t have a penny.
I'm like the fiddler on the roof guy, I'm sticking with Tradition! We became a superpower without having to change these things so there's that.
Penny is from the german Pfenig thats where we got it
To the US it came from England. Most people don't know or have forgotten that English and German share the same root language. It's why so many English and German words are similar with the same meaning.
Well, “Tough Guy Tony” was apparently wearing “Tough Guy Tom’s” safety helmet…
"One Buck" is in reference to the amount a hunter was paid for one buck deer that they harvested and took to market; hence 1 dollar is a "buck".
Actually a "buck" or dollar is what the deer hide was worth.
A dollar is a buck. Back in the early times of America a buck skin ( deer) was worth a buck!! And today deer nuts are under a $buck.
In my D&D campaign nail were used as a super small currency.
Old copper Lincoln pennies (pre 1981) weigh two penny weights. Current 1 cent coins are an even 2.5 grams. More convenient weights if your weighting illegal drugs
We still use nail gauge in England
I love that shirt. That’s hilarious.
Aqui no Brasil esse prego calibre 9 se chama 18 por 27
Nailed it!
Cool that you have Brazilian and Mexican dubs!
60p and bigger are spikes / d is also used as an abbreviation for pence in UK don't ask me why I a Yank
The true dimensions of 'penny' nails have changed in size over time, they were slightly longer and quite a bit thicker only 25 years ago. And even more a hundred years ago.
I have remodelled a one hundred year old house and a 40 year old shed and noticed the differences in nail sizes when matched against nails that I had just purchased.
You can still get the thicker nails. They are called common nails. Box nails are thinner, slightly shorter and used for thin boards, but they don't hold as well in framing lumber as common nails because they move aside fewer wood fibers. Then manufacturers coated box nails with rosin, creating sinker or cement-coated nails. The rosin acts like hot-melt glue, holding the nail in place rather than just depending on pressure from the wood fibers. They have mostly replaced common nails. Sinker nails are less likely to split the boards but the rosin coating glues them to the wood.
@MickAlderson you have forgotten to mention that nails of a given size by type have the same holding power. A 16d common, 16d cc both have the same holding power and strength (the cc while thinner is also a "higher " grade steel).
There are minimum standards which have to be conformed to.
A penny is just a nickname for the 1c coin: 🤯
Back in the 1600s and 1700s Nails were sold by X number of Pennies for a pound or per hundred. d is the shorthand for a English Penny. We don't have Pennies we have Cents 1/100th of a Thaller or today Dollars. The Thaller was a common coin used for a buck
Didn’t it start out where a pound of those particular nails cost eight pennies or eight pence or something for an eight penny nail?
Changing from imperial (or older) measurement systems to metric enables exciting new ways to increase profits through shrink-flation. Want to pay the same for a gallon of milk but only get 3 liters? You can be sure you won't get 4 liters (on average) for the same price (unless the artificially jack up the gallon price in anticipation of the change over). And if gas starts being sold as liters, you can bet it will be half the cost per liter than a gallon. What a benefit to the consumer with lower prices! But by equivalent volume you will actually be paying nearly double the price. Antiquated measurement systems that used to be approximations have long been standardized. IMO, there is no GOOD reason to change from one measurement system to another when they are all mathematically convertible to each other anyway.
Depends on if you use US gallons (3.785 litres) or UK gallons (4.55 Litres)
The context of the video, and therefore the context of my comment, is America.
@@petarnovakovich240
A pint of beer is very different in the UK than in the US
@@Demopans5990 Quite right, besides being bigger it actually tastes better.😁
2:03 mark in this video is 🔥
If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it … unless you have nails.
Interesting video. I feel like we Americans view the need to change nail organization as silly, uptight, and about as necessary to society as regulating how thinly you're allowed to slice bread. If you don't know which nail size you need then you shouldn't be swinging a hammer.
Parabéns por fazer vídeo com tradução em português Brasil
Seus vídeos são muito bons
I too was not aware that penny is not the correct name.
I also thought penny was the official name, and 1 cent was just the amount it was worth.
Take a look at any you may have in your pocket or piggybank, they have the words one cent or a 1 followed by cent stamped on them.
Your currency is dollars & cents - cent comes from the latin for 1/100ths.
Ours is Pounds & pence.
You say our measurement system for nails doesn't make sense to the rest of the world? It has never made sense to me! I agree... I would like to just go by dimensions, I don't even mind the metric system. Centimeters for length, millimeters for diameter. For screws, include the number of threads per inch, or centimeters, to define the pitch.
My penny farthing is neither a penny nor a farthing .
Interesting video i enjoyed it very much .
ah yes, penny nails, a staple of the only country that has landed man on the moon.
@3:40 WAIT WHAT? Penny is a nickname? Huh. Wait does that mean Nickel isn't an office name either? I never thought a buck was official, but penny? Had no idea.
Nickel comes from the metal they were (initally) partly made from - nickel/silver then nickel/copper, They have either the number 5 followed by cents or the words five cents stamped on them.
Dime because they were a tenth of a dollar = ten cents (D from Deci = tenth)
I suppose we can imagine a world and a government that was no inflation. Skilled workers pound out the same income as the non-skilled all day long because somebody might be a threat to the price.
And then there is NUMBER (#)...like a #8 screw, or a #10 which is then combined with inches... like a 1½" #10, and of course, then there is thread.... like UNF, UNC, BSF, Whit, but I guess that's easier than pitch, internal diameter, external diameter, effective diameter, threads per inch. Imagine going to the store asking for 5/8", 11, 0.0909, 0.6250, 0.5660, 0.5135, 0.5266 screws.
If a penny is a one cent piece does that mean a nickel is a 5 cent piece and a dime a 10 cent piece etc?