>he always had to get his two-bits worth in."

Bissel nach "two- bits worth" rumgegoogelt:
"Er mußte immer seinen Senf dazugeben."

Es bedeutet, dass der Typ zu allem seinen Senf dazu geben musste. Two bits worth ist ein Ausdruck, der auf einen geringen Geldbetrag zurückgeht, ich glaube 25 Cent oder etwas in der Größenordnung. Billige, wertlose Kommentare also, die zu nichts führen.

Vgl. auch   related discussion:meine unbedeutende Meinung -- my two penny worth

One of the more frequently asked questions on this site's discussion group is where the term two 'bits' comes from. Most people know that it means 25 cents, but the origin is a mystery to them.
'Bit,' which ultimately comes from the Old English 'bita,' originally meant a morsel of food. From there it went on to denote any small thing, particularly a fraction of a larger whole. By 1683 in the English-speaking American colonies 'bit' had come to denote a Spanish/Mexican real, or one eighth of a peso. The peso was a common form of currency in the colonies. And in the early days of the United States, pesos were commonly used as dollar coins and real coins represented twelve and half cents, hence two bits equaled 25 cents.
http://www.wordorigins.org/wordorb.htm

the dollar-sized 8 Reales coin ... served as the model in size for our dollar coin. The 8 Real coins circulated widely in Florida and the Caribbean prior to the Revolusion, and would have been familiar to American colonials. It is my feeling that the new nation elected to pattern its monetary unit after the Spanish 8 Reales rather than the British Pound, as a sign of independence from the mother country. The One-Real piece was a small silver coin, also called a "bit". That is why our quarter-dollar has come to be known as "two bits".
http://www.westegg.com/etymology/

The noun 'two bits' means a quarter (25 cents). However, any amount before 'worth' should be in the possessive: two cents' worth, quarter's worth. So the quote from the book should read 'two bits' worth' (apostrophe, no hyphen).

There used to be a football cheer that went

Two bits, four bits, six bits, a dollar:
All for [our team], stand up and holler!

There was also a saying about something interesting but intrinsically useless/worthless, like an obscure piece of knowledge (or in my case, a liberal-arts degree): 'That and two bits'll buy you a cup of coffee.' Of course, you're lucky now if you can get that 25¢ cup of coffee for a dollar (or four or five, at Starbucks). (-:

We would say,or used to say, 'get his spoke in' so there are, or used to be, BE equivalents for the AE 'two bits'

hm-us - Thank you for the explanation. Living here in Germany for 20 years, I haven't heard that cheer sind my school days, and now I know where it comes from! Do you really think it's not used anymore?

Hold on a second--I don't think hm's explanation is the right one, or at least if it is, I've been under a misconception for many years.

The explanation I know of concerns Spanish dollars which could be easily cut into eight pieces, with all eight thus equaling one dollar, and 2 bits being a quarter, or 25 cents. This practice is also the origin of the term "pieces of eight" as a synonym for money (often pirate booty).

Many sites cover this version of the word, for example http://www.geocities.com/fifth_grade_tpes/two... or http://www.espd.com/oxhill/Artifacts/Colonial... or any number of others.

I don't know if these accounts are correct, but by Occam's razor my bet is that they are.

In England we say, "That's my fourpenn'rth" or "Can I get my fourpenn'rth in?" meaning "my fourpennies' worth".

It means equating the ability to get ones idea over into an arguement with its monetry value.

Ha! -ich hab dieses buch auch geleseb, mit Two-Bit.
The Outsiders, von S.E.Hinton, gell?^^
Wollt ich nur mal sagen!