David Xiong wrote:
Hi,guys!I am on the list for a while.But what is the $.02?
It's short hand for the phrase "My two cents" and basically means my opinion on the subject.
I also found the following after doing a little web research:
Many years ago, the United States used gold and silver coins as a common currency. The value of the coin would be equal to the value of the gold or silver contained in the coin.
Occasionally, an individual would have to pay in increments smaller than the coin's denominations.
In this case, the occasion is a person's "ante" in a poker game, which was roughly 25 cents.
The gold and silver coins would be split into halfs, quarters and eighths. The eighths of a coin piece was referred to as a "piece of eight" or a "bit".
Hence, one's "two bits", as the orignal phrase went, were their ante in a game of poker; their contribution in order to play the game.