Two bits

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For the humor column in the Technique, see Two Bits Man.

Two bits is a colloquial expression in the United States for 25¢. It dates from colonial days, when a common unit of currency was the Spanish milled dollar. As a way of making change, these dollars were often cut into eight pie-slice shaped pieces, called bits. Hence, two bits being a quarter dollar.

One source of the term's continued modern notability comes from the line "Shave and a Haircut" and the response of "two bits."