I have been looking to see if there is an English equivalent to "Schiebung" but haven't yet found anything so closely related. It wouldn't surprise me, though, if "to slide one by" could have found use as a result of old-time transactions. Well, that, or the baseball pitch.
Thanks for the extra angle..fun.
About the book. Sorry to say the journey was concentrated in southern locales. I've just scanned it so far, but it looks like: Italy, Switzerland, Austria, Bavaria, Turkey, Russia, Prussia, France, England (the cover coin must be a florin--would have been about 50 cents American at the time).
Think maybe I'll start a separate thread for the book--that is, what certain coins could have bought in Europe about 1885--and invite everyone to add...whatever.
I do have to say that already I can see the book will be real fun (I may have already used it a little, now that I think on it). The book is all about prices, of course, so there should be some real close associations to particular coins. In 1885 British bronze was relatively new, and as for silver, the Great Recoinage of 1816 was still in the driver's seat--as were the similar events in Italy (1860s) and Germany (1870s)...
(I know you guys know all this already--I'm just talking to myself and anyone who might be a little new at this.)
Anyway, the author's spelled this out mostly in terms of U.S. dollars and cents, but he's been exact enough that it's easy to convert to the currency he's transacting in.
One thing, though, already of interest. He's describing a bout of bargaining for a glass of lemonade in Italy and is going back and forth between U.S. and Italian currency terms--but actively uses soldo and soldi when he's talking about 5-centesimi and its multiples. It's fun to see that what I've read before--that Italy's 5-centesimi pieces were often called "soldi" years after they had displaced the old soldi--not as a second-hand historical observation, but as someone's contemporary experience.
My hope, as always, will be that folks will add other stuff. I think we'll all have some fun, maybe.
v.
. And thanks for the link--I'm just beginning to explore. Found my book too, and hope to read some soon. Photographed part of the cover, attached below.
