Another small coin

[Douglas G. Wilson]

>We've discussed this here before; see DARE. This sense is 'a coin of
>a particular stated denomination, as contrasted with the same amount
>of money made up of several smaller coins'. A "case dollar" is a
>dollar coin, as opposed to the sum of a dollar.
>
>I don't think your above example is accurate, since this use of
>"case" is not relevant to quantities of money; that is, there
>would be no need for a newsman to require a case quarter as
>opposed to the sum of twenty-five cents.

I see the 1994 reference now. I don't have DARE at hand. I'll check it next
time I get over to the library. I am pretty sure the example is essentially
accurate, but now that you mention it I think it may have been in reference
to a newspaper vending machine -- perhaps it wouldn't accept small change,
or the speaker thought it wouldn't. IIRC, the machine wanted a dime for the
daily, a quarter for the Sunday edition. However, I remember one other, uh,
case where a boy said he would run some errand or other for a "case
quarter" -- presumably he would have been satisfied with two dimes and a
nickel, but perhaps this was simply an isolated erroneous usage ... or
maybe another neuron is misfiring.

I never heard 'case dime', 'case dollar', etc.

Thanks for the enlightenment.

-- Doug Wilson