Where does the saying "giving your two cents" come from?

Answer 1

'Two cents' worth'

Meaning

An individual's opinion.

Origin

'My two cents' worth' (or 'two bits' worth') implies that, in order to express and opinion, a small charge is levied. This could well be a simple notional charge and not related to any actual payment. It has been suggested that 'two cents' was the minimum wager required of a new player in order to enter poker games. There's no documentary evidence to support that idea. The US version of the phrase is pre-dated by the British 'two-penneth' and there's little reason to believe 'two cents' worth' to be anything other than a US translation of that. The card-playing origin of the phrase could just as well apply to the British version but, without evidence, that's merely speculation.

The earliest example I can find of the US-variant phrase in print is from the Olean Evening Times, March 1926. That includes an item by Allene Sumner, headed My "Two cents' worth".

Answer 2

Once upon a time there was a two cent coin (tuppence) which was a fair amount of money to spend when a penny could buy a meal and a ha'penny - half a cent - was also a coin. So putting in your two cents worth was contributing something that was worthwhile without being a huge investment.
[two bits has nothing to do with poker - when the Thaller became the Dollar and was gold, it was far too much money to spend easily, it was cut into eighths and quarters. Each eighth was a bit, so two bits was a quarter. Later coins incorporated the 2 bits, 4 bits, 8 bits, a dollar and our american quarter was called 2 bits in slang.]

Answer 3

from people ,don't have nothing to do ,but to give you their two cent's.
it's just like the saying :opinions are like assholes,everybody as one .

Answer 4

A penny for your thoughts.

Answer 5

derived from "put my two bits in", from Poker.