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Bi-quinary coded decimal is a numeral encoding scheme used in many abacuses and in some early computers, including the Colossus. The term bi-quinary indicates that the code comprises both a two-state and a five-state component. The encoding resembles that used by many abacuses, with four beads indicating either 0 through 4 or 5 through 9 and another bead indicating which of those ranges.
Several human languages, most notably Fula and Wolof also use biquinary systems. For example, the Fula word for 6, jowi e go'o, literally means five one. Roman numerals use a symbolic, rather than positional, bi-quinary base, even though Latin is completely decimal.
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