Dollars and cents

[SteveD]

1. When was a decimal currency system introduced in what is now the USA?

2. Assuming that this was a result of "continental" influence (rather than British), why was a metric system of weights and measures not introduced at the same time?

3. Is there still a project to introduce the metric system in the US? (I have an oldish Rand McNally map which mentions this).

[tock24]

Under Spanish influence the unit of currency was the doubloon. It was frequently cut into pieces [rather like making change!] and these where known as 'pieces of eight'! 2 of these were a quarter, and is often referred to as 'two bits' ie 2 eighths.

[Clanad]

The dollar was unanimously chosen as the monetary unit for the United States on July 6, 1785. This was the first time a nation had adopted a decimal currency system. (With thanks to Wikipedia).

In 1793, during Napoleon's time, the French government adopted a new system of standards called the metric system, based on what they called the metre.While France was evolving the metric system, England also was setting up a more scientifically accurate determination of the yard. Where the French relied on the assumed constancy of the earth's size as a basis for the permanency of their standards, the British turned to the measured beat of the pendulum. Galileo already had learned the secrets of a pendulum. He found that  the longer the pendulum, the slower it swung. He also found that a pendulum a little over 39 inches long would swing through its arc in exactly one second. Since a pendulum always behaves exactly the same way under the same conditions, here was another unchanging distance upon which to base a standard measurement.
In 1824, the English Parliament legalized a new standard yard which had been made in 1760. It was a brass bar containing a gold button near each end. A dot was engraved in each of these two buttons. These two dots were spaced exactly 1 yard apart. The same act that legalized this bar as the standard for England also made the provision that, in the event it was lost or destroyed, it should be replaced using the pendulum method to determine its length. A few years later copies of both the English yard and the French metre standards were brought to the United States. The English system of measuring was almost universally adopted in the United States. (Thanks to Brain Bank).

From time to time there is discussion concerning use of the metric system in the US, but it is usually not taken seriously...

[Ouisch]

Having been a high school student at that time, I well remember the attempt at metric conversion.  It began in 1974 (thanks to President Ford), but had (thankfully) petered out by 1976.  This question reminds me of an episode of the Newhart show, when handyman George was going through his scrapbook.  "Here's a socket wrench I have left from the metric scare of the early 1970s..."