"Shave and a haircut, two bits." Two bits calculates out to be a quarter, and that price for a shave and a haircut dates us back to before the turn of the last century. Two bits was the common price for the above service for over a hundred years. Today, you will spend at least $20.00 for a shave and a haircut. That's 80 times what the gentlemen of "Times Gone By" paid. This fact gives us a painful reminder of what inflation has done to the cost of goods and services over the years. Two bits came from the old "pieces of eight" economy of years long ago. Old Spanish dollars were cut into quarters or "eight bits," to make change for small transactions. "Two bits" then became a quarter in U.S currency. But the most famous haircut of all cost a whole lot more than 2 bits. In the end it cost the life of Samson.

When Delilah saw that he had told her everything, she sent word to the rulers of the Philistines, "Come back once more; he has told me everything." So the rulers of the Philistines returned with the silver in their hands. Having put him to sleep on her lap, she called a man to shave off the seven braids of his hair, and so began to subdue him. And his strength left him.
Judges 16:18-19

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