What's a lid?

I guess back in the days, in the sticks people used that term without knowing the true or right meaning. In a place like New York City, 99% of weed/drug spots/sales were more professional. You knew what you were getting, weather it was a Tre' ($3) bag to a quarter oz, half oz, 1 oz, 1 lbs, etc:. They called it what it was. Plus, they had various stamped (or labeled) brand names on everything from reefer to junk (so you knew what to cop that was good). Every place has a slightly different meaning for various slang words.
 
Your right, lid was a four finger bag. I always looked for the dealer with the biggest hands. Then you had to look past all the hippie grenades and wood. Then triple beams came out and the lids became oz. So we all said we'll take the duff and you can have the grenades and wood. Like Columbia gold, panama red, budda Thai, and of course Thai stick and every once in a while you would see some Hawaiian cola's floating by.
 
Ok I use to run in the 70’s while at college-here’s the break down:

A Quarter=1 finger bag=7 grams
A Half= 2 finger bag=14 grams
A Lid= 3 finger bag=21 grams
A Z= 4 finger bag=28 grams also called an Oh-Z

I’d get a lid on every 1/4 LB I delivered-so I laugh when the urban dictionary says it’s another name for an ounce. Finger bags were how much weed it took to fill a clear zip lock bag when you held up that many fingers behind the bag. If it didn’t reach the top of your finger and go all the way across the bag-the bag was “short” & usually was no problem-they would just “throw” ya another nug or 2 and all was good.
 
In my day (mid 60's) a lid was a bag of grass. Could be 2,3,4 fingers up in the bag. My first LID was a Wonder bread bag half full for 10.00 (Columbian). It did go up however LOL
 
To remember lids, you should remember nickel and dime bags too! The way I remember it, nickel bag is $5, dime bag $10, lid is a bit less than an ounce and $15-20, can't remember what a true ounce cost, less common back then. Used to roll up in corner of a baggy to size 5&10 bags, a lid was just too much to do that.
 
Back in the 70's, I would pick up a "negotiated" 1/4 lb...usually Mexican (even "mean green" during the droughts, at a discount, of course).
Remember the 1/2 gal freezer bags, the smell, checking for the amount of buds, shake and the stems.
Plus, the obligatory test of the product and usually a cold one, followed by the after deal joint or bongs.
Back then for decent Mexican, an "quarter" was $45..."oz's", lids were $15...so, you would keep a bag for personal use.
Never dealed less than a oz/kid.
Sometimes, for a party, we would just pool our resources and pick up a quarter, split it up (by eye) and leave a community "pile", where everone would either bitch about who is rolling, or someone's bogus joint roll...and of course, if using a bong, the occasional "spilling of the bong water".
Good times...and everybody who I partied with simply laughed our asses off while playing euchre and such.
And then there was the California, Hawaiian and the "gold", where the prices went up and the negotiations were harder.
Leaving you with the homemade mean green hash oil...put the cheap horrible stuff to a good use.
Oh...and a frisbee was best suited to "cleaning" a bag, breaking up buds and "sifting the seeds"
Good times, back in days.
 
When I was growing up, a Lid was a old school (non ziplock) bag full of pot, so that just the lid would fold over the top of the bag. Never heard of a coffee can.
 
HappyOneHit said:
I think its an outdated term, none of my friends or dealers have ever used it, but I remember hearing it quite a bit in Cheech and Chong sketchs. Just curious.
Click to expand...
You are correct they didn’t weight it back then and you could buy a sack full that was so full it barely could take the bag end and tuck in the sealed two layered part 3/4 up on the sandwich bag.It wasn’t a lid.My dad followed the The Warlocks and then the Greatful Dead in the 60’s,70’s and I heard all kinds of stories from
HappyOneHit said:
I think its an outdated term, none of my friends or dealers have ever used it, but I remember hearing it quite a bit in Cheech and Chong sketchs. Just curious.
Click to expand...
Yeah,it’s a misconception but my father followed the Warlocks and the Dead and was around Haight Ashbury in San Francisco back in the late 60’s and 70’s and he has told me all kinds of crazy stories from Timothy Leary’s Acid Experiments the Warlocks did before The Dead to the way you bought grass back then and the higher grade strains back then Maui Waui,Acapulco Gold!
 
All I can tell you is, roughly once a month in highschool, we would pool our money, and I'd go to my man James and say, "Dude, hook me up with a lid. And not any of that 4 finger bullshit either." He didn't pull out a coffee can, and he certainly didn't use the top of a prince albert tobacco can (as some folks also think).

A nickel was $5, a dime was $10, a dub was $20 and a Lid was $100.
 
Oh yeah, and in New York State, "1 finger less than a lid" was what we referred to as the difference between Felony Possession and Misdemeanor. 1 ounce in new York state at the time was Felony intent to distribute. Less than that was simple possession. So, as soon as I bought the lid, I'd smoke a bone with James, so I was under an ounce. Who knows how much it really weighed. We did use a simple scale that you would hold up and then clip the bag to it. It would use gravity to guess how much the bag weighed. Not very precise but was all we had at the time.
 
zeroday said:
All I can tell you is, roughly once a month in highschool, we would pool our money, and I'd go to my man James and say, "Dude, hook me up with a lid. And not any of that 4 finger bullshit either." He didn't pull out a coffee can, and he certainly didn't use the top of a prince albert tobacco can (as some folks also think).

A nickel was $5, a dime was $10, a dub was $20 and a Lid was $100.
Click to expand...
Look it up online,James was wrong!lol
 
zeroday said:
All I can tell you is, roughly once a month in highschool, we would pool our money, and I'd go to my man James and say, "Dude, hook me up with a lid. And not any of that 4 finger bullshit either." He didn't pull out a coffee can, and he certainly didn't use the top of a prince albert tobacco can (as some folks also think).

A nickel was $5, a dime was $10, a dub was $20 and a Lid was $100.
Click to expand...
Four fingers is the way they did it and it was said that’s why it was called!Look it up online James must have heard wrong?Not to argue but it’s online?
 
Hey man, its all good, whatever "they" did is just groovy. All I can tell you, is me and many many people that I was smoking with back in the day did it this way. Don't need to google it or hear it second handed. "I was there man!"

Be groovy.
 
And LOL!!! "I read it on the internet, it must be true!"

Gotta love that shit! All day long, lol!!!!
 
I also read on the internet that its not actually a coffee can lid, but actually a Prince Albert Tobacco can lid.

Stupid internet. Its almost like anyone can post anything and its not verified.
 
Well, taking your advice, I went ahead and looked it up again. I figured I would go with the website answers.com, because I mean I was looking for an answer and all.

So, here is what answers.com says. Not sure if I am allowed to post the link....

"When I purchased a lid in 1971 it was FOUR FINGERS. Meaning you could fold the baggie (uncleated) and it was as wide as FOUR FINGERS of your hand."
 

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