Where did the phrase come from"I wouldn't give you a "red cent" come from?

Question

Where did the phrase come from"I wouldn't give you a "red cent" come from?

Answer 1

Penny's are made of copper which is known for it's red color. Hence Red Cent.

Answer 2

Before the Lincoln head penny, there was the Indian head penny.  The Indian head penny was initially made from a different copper alloy that had a more reddish tinge to it than the later alloys that were used.

The "Red Cent" refers to both the Indian on the Indian head penny, and to the color of the penny.  A Red Cent was the least valuable coin, but it did have some value at the time (unlike today).  If you said that something wasn't worth a Red Cent, then it was completely worthless since it did not get to the level of being worth the least valuable coin.

Answer 3

a red cent is a penny, so if you say that it means that they wouldn't give you a penny

Answer 4

This is from: Idioms & Axioms currently used in America

(Meanings and Origins)

One Red Cent -

The "Red" refers to both the color of a penny (one cent) and the image that used to be on the penny, an American Indian head. Redskin is a slang term used for American Indians.

Before today's Lincoln penny was the Indian Head penny.

The Indian Head penny was first issued in 1859 and looks just like that as issued in 1908 (before the Lincoln Cent). The only difference was that those from 1859-1864 were of a different copper-nickel alloy while 1864 started the common bronze, which was used until 1982. (You didn't know it changed then, did you?)

The copper-nickel alloy has a reddish tint, which turns redder with time and skin oil.

Before the Indian Head penny was the "Buzzard Cent", as the One Cent coins in 1856-1858 were called. The flying eagle on the coin was damned as an ugly bird and it wasn't popular.

However, it was the first "small cent" using about the same size as our penny today. In the half century before this, One Cent coins were about the size of today's Half Dollar!

Answer 5

The origin of "one red cent" comes from that pennies used to be made of copper, and it was the redness of the copper that led to the phrase. Pennies these days aren't made of pure copper, but rather an alloy of copper, tin and zinc. We can presume that pure copper pennies used to be somewhat redder than our modern hybrids.

Based on the premise that nothing is worth less than a penny, the phrase "not worth one red cent" has been commonly used since the early 18th century to describe something utterly worthless. The "red" in the phrase is an intensifier -- today we might well say "not worth one d**n penny" and mean the same thing.

http://www.phrases.org.uk/bulletin_board...

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