"HEARING A PIN DROP"
ORIGIN OF THE EXPRESSION. Many years ago it was customary to hold ship auctions atLloyd's Coffee House on Tower Hill, and a pin was thrust into a lighted candle, about one j inch from the top. The last. bid made before th'e pin fell out of the melting tallow was accepted. When this crtieal stage in the "candle auctions" — as they were then called — was reached, a deathlike cairn came over the assembly, to ■ enable those present "to bear the pin drop."
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/RMPOST19330620.2.60
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Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 562, 20 June 1933, Page 7
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86"HEARING A PIN DROP" Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 562, 20 June 1933, Page 7
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