This is a self-deprecating expression for a contribution to a discussion. It means my contribution may not be worth much (just two cents), but here it is.


Fuad

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Note added at 2003-02-09 22:01:43 (GMT)
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The usual expression is \"my two-cents worth,\" but you know how people abbreviate like crazy in the US.

I can't tell you the origin but it means that someone is expressing an opinion modestly. Two cents aren't worth very much, so anyone adding "my two cents, centavos, etc." is providing an opinion and doesn't want to be arrogant or to imply that her opinion is the only possibilty.


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Note added at 2003-02-09 22:08:38 (GMT)
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One explanation of the origin:

“put in one\'s two cents\' worth\"
by Mark Israel

This expression meaning \"to contribute one\'s opinion\" dates from
the late nineteenth century. Bo Bradham suggested that it came from
\"the days of $.02 postage. To \'put one\'s two cents\' worth in\'
referred to the cost of a letter to the editor, the president, or
whomever was deserving\". According to the Encyclopaedia
Britannica, the first-class postal rate was 2 cents an ounce between
1883 and 1932 (with the exception of a brief period during World War
I). This OED citation confirms that two-cent stamps were once
common: \"1902 ELIZ. L. BANKS Newspaper Girl xiv, Dinah got a letter
through the American mail. She had fivepence to pay on it, because
only a common two-cent stamp had been stuck on it.\" On the other
hand, \"two-cent\" was an American expression for \"of little value\"
(similar to British \"twopenny-halfpenny\"), so the phrase may simply
have indicated the writer\'s modesty about the value of his
contribution.

http://alt-usage-english.org/excerpts/fxputino.html

In any case, the whole point of "my two cents worth," which originated in the late 19th century, is that it is a faux-modest, self-deprecating tactic used to disarm your audience before you announce your opinion. This is especially important in the event that your opinion turns out to be idiotic, in which case you can always claim that you warned your listeners in advance that your opinion was next to worthless. The phrase has long since become a cliche, and its use can be especially grating when the person announcing the arrival of his "two cents worth" is a doctor or lawyer (or a dentist, come to think of it) charging you two hundred dollars an hour. Don't get me started.

"Two cents" or "two-center" has been a slang synonym for "very cheap" since the middle of the 19th century, when the cheapest cigar available was literally a "two- center." The U.S. Treasury Department actually issued a two-cent coin in 1864, which was, incidentally, the first U.S. coin to bear the motto "In God We Trust." The government, evidently feeling frisky in a monetary sort of way, also issued coins in three-cent and twenty-cent denominations during the same period.

At the time this phrase was gaining "currency", there was another more common expression, pennyworth or pen'oth. That was the logical smallest unit: "A small quantity, as much as can be bought for a penny. Butler says, 'This was the pen’oth of his thought' (Hudibras, ii. 3), meaning that its scope or amount was extremely small"
1 He has got his pennyworth. He has got due value for his money.
2 To turn an honest penny. To earn a little money by working for it.

So I think the expression 'two cents worth' means something small, but not the smallest possible thing. Humble, but not too humble.