The silver 8-real coin was known as the Spanish dollar, or peso, or the famous piece of eight. Spanish dollars minted between 1732 and 1773 are also often referred to as columnarios. The portrait variety from 1772 and later are typically referred to as Spanish dollars or pillar dollars. New World Treasures specializes in the sales of rare authentic Spanish coins, Spanish colonial coins, shipwreck treasure coins, shipwreck artifacts, and ancient coin jewelry. Offered are 8 reales coins, commonly referred to as pieces of eight, and 8 escudos coins, often called gold doubloons, many minted at the popular New World Spanish.

• Authentic Spanish Pieces Of Eight For Sale
• True Piece Of Eight
• Gold Piece Of Eight
• Piece Of Eight Real

The real (meaning: 'royal', plural: reales) was a unit of currency in Spain for several centuries after the mid-14th century.^[1] It underwent several changes in value relative to other units throughout its lifetime until it was replaced by the peseta in 1868. The most common denomination for the currency was the silver eight-real Spanish dollar (Real de a 8) or peso which was used throughout Europe, America and Asia during the height of the Spanish Empire.

• 1History

History[edit]

In Spain and Spanish America[edit]

See also: Currency of Spanish America

The first real was introduced by King Pedro I of Castile in the mid 14th century, with 66 minted from a Castilian mark of silver (230.0465 grams), fineness ​¹³⁴⁄₁₄₄ or 0.9306, and valued of 3 maravedíes. It co-circulated with various other silver coins until a 1497 ordinance eliminated all other coins and retained the real (now minted 67 to a mark of silver, 0.9306 fine, fine silver 3.195 grams) subdivided into 34 maravedíes.^[2]

The silver real was minted in ​¹⁄₂-, 1-, 2-, 4- and 8-real denominations. After the discovery of silver in Mexico, Peru and Bolivia in the 16th century, the 8-real coin (referred to since then as a dollar, a peso or a piece of eight) became an internationally recognized trade coin in Europe, Asia and North America. These reales were supplemented by the gold escudo, minted 68 to a mark of ​¹¹⁄₁₂ fine gold (3.101 g fine gold), and valued at 15–16 silver reales or approximately two dollars.

This real worth ​¹⁄₈ dollar was retained in Latin America until the 19th century but was altered considerably in peninsular Spain starting in the 17th century. This Spanish colonial real was subsequently referred to as moneda nacional (national money) and underwent two more alterations, namely:

• 1728: 68 reales (or ​8¹⁄₂ dollars) minted to a mark, ​¹¹⁄₁₂ or 0.9167 fine (3.101 g fine silver)
• 1772: ​8¹⁄₂ dollars minted to a mark, ​¹³⁰⁄₁₄₄ or 0.9028 fine (3.054 g fine silver)

In Spain – 17th and 18th centuries[edit]

The various financial crises under King Philip II gave rise starting in 1600 to the real de vellón (made of billon, or less than half silver). The relative autonomy of Spain’s constituent kingdoms resulted in reales of varying silver content and worth considerably less the real nacional worth ​¹⁄₈ of a dollar. The monetary confusion would not be resolved until the real de vellón was fixed at 20 reales to the dollar in 1737.^[3]

The first ordinance officially devaluing the Spanish non-colonial real came out in 1642, with the real provincial debased from 67 to ​83³⁄₄ to a mark of silver (hence, 10 reales to the dollar). Actual coins worth ​¹⁄₂, 1, 2, 4 and 8 reales provincial (the latter worth ​⁴⁄₅ of a dollar and called peso maria) were minted in 1686 and were poorly received by the public.^[4]

The same 1686 recoinage came with edicts in 1686–1687 fixing the real de vellón at one dollar = ​15²⁄₃₄ reales or 512 maravedíes (or 1 dollar = 8 reales nacionales worth 64 maravedíes). The ineffectiveness of these edicts meant that existing reales de vellón were worth even less than 1/15​²⁄₃₄ of a dollar (0.0664 dollars).

The confusion to the monetary situation would not be resolved until 1737 in various stages, namely:

• The dollar of 8 reales nacionales reduced in 1728 to ​8¹⁄₂ dollars to a mark, ​¹¹⁄₁₂ or 0.9167 fine (24.809 g fine silver)
• Real nacional coins were reintroduced in 8-real and 4-real denominations worth 1 dollar and ​¹⁄₂ dollar, respectively.
• Real provincial coins were limited to 2-, 1- and ​¹⁄₂-real denominations worth ​¹⁄₅, ​¹⁄₁₀ and ​¹⁄₂₀ dollar, respectively.
• The Real de vellón was finally fixed in 1737 at ​¹⁄₂₀ dollar and equal to 34 maravedíes (hence 1 dollar = 20 reales = 680 maravedíes), and
• The Peso de cambio of 512 maravedíes as introduced in 1686 continued to be used as an accounting unit but worth a reduced value of ​⁵¹²⁄₆₈₀ dollar (approximately ​³⁄₄ of a dollar). This was divided into eight reales de cambio each of 64 maravedíes.

Authentic Spanish Pieces Of Eight For Sale

Subsequent changes until the end of the 18th century were minor and involved reducing the fineness of the silver dollar to ​¹³⁰⁄₁₄₄ = 0.9028 fine and the gold escudo (now worth 2 dollars or 40 reales de vellón) from 0.917 to 0.875 fine. Starting 1810 silver coin denominations were revised to their more common-sense values in reales de vellón: 20, 10, 4, 2 and 1 real with 1 real = ​¹⁄₂₀ dollar.

In Spain – 19th century[edit]

The loss of American possessions in the first third of the 19th century cut off the inflow of precious metals into Spain and resulted in the gradual use of French coinage in local circulation. These subsequent changes to the Spanish currency system were never carried out in full:

• The first decimal currency of 1850, with the real de vellón worth ​¹⁄₂₀ dollar, 10 décimas or 100 céntimos, and with maravedíes discontinued.
• The second decimal currency of 1864, with a new silver escudo worth ​¹⁄₂ dollar, 10 reales de vellón or 100 céntimos de escudo (not equivalent to the gold escudo).

The real was only retired completely with the introduction in 1868 of the Spanish peseta, at par with the French franc, and at the rate of 1 dollar = 20 reales = 5 pesetas. Consequently, the term real lived on, meaning a quarter of a peseta (25 céntimos de peseta).

Coins[edit]

Coins were minted in both Spain and Latin America from the 16th to 19th centuries in silver ​¹⁄₂, 1, 2, 4 and 8 reales nacional and in gold ​¹⁄₂, 1, 2, 4 and 8 escudos. The silver 8-real coin was known as the Spanish dollar, or peso, or the famous piece of eight. Spanish dollars minted between 1732 and 1773 are also often referred to as columnarios. The portrait variety from 1772 and later are typically referred to as Spanish dollars or pillar dollars.

Coins were minted in Spain in copper 1, 2, 4 and 8 maravedíes, in silver coins equivalent to 1, 2, 4, 10 and 20 reales de vellón since 1737, and in gold coins equivalent to ​¹⁄₂, 1, 2, 4 and 8 escudos. New coins introduced after the 1850 decimalization include copper 5, 10 and 25 céntimos de real was well as a new gold 100-real (5-dollar) coin.

True Piece Of Eight

See also[edit]

References[edit]

1. ^Martínez, Mary (10 February 2017). 'Spanish influence on American Currencies'. Kind-le. Archived from the original on 7 October 2017. Retrieved 17 July 2018.
2. ^Shaw, William Arthur (1896). 'The History of Currency, 1252–1894; Appendix III: Spain'.
3. ^Sumner, W. G. (1898). 'The Spanish Dollar and the Colonial Shilling'. The American Historical Review. 3 (4): 607–619. doi:10.2307/1834139. JSTOR1834139.
4. ^'8 Reales'.

Bibliography[edit]

• Krause, Chester L.; Clifford Mishler (1991). Standard Catalog of World Coins: 1801–1991 (18th ed.). Krause Publications. ISBN0873411501.

External links[edit]

• Coins from Guadalajara, Jalisco. Mexico (1812–2006) (gdlcoins.com)
• The Colonial Coinage of Spanish America: An introduction by Daniel Frank Sedwick

Gold Piece Of Eight

Pieces of eight were the world's first global currency. As the coins of Spain they were used across the vast Spanish Empire, stretching from South America to the Philippines, but were also used outside the empire as well. In 1600 one coin would have been worth the equivalent of a modern £50 note. The front of the coin is decorated with the coat of arms of the Habsburgs, the rulers of Spain and the most powerful family in Europe.
Where did the silver for pieces of eight come from?
The inscription on this coin - King of the Spains and the Indies - refers to European Spain and the great new Spanish Empire in the Americas. The silver used to create the coins and finance Spain's armies and armadas came, above all, from the 'silver mountain' of Potosi in Bolivia. This wealth came at a terrible cost to human life. Thousands of indigenous American Indians and African slaves died in the brutal conditions of the mines to support Spain's thirst for silver.

Pieces of eight were legal tender in the USA until 1857

‘Pieces of eight!’

Piece Of Eight Real

'Give me a child until he is seven and I will show you the man,' was supposedly said by the founder of the Jesuits, St Ignatius Loyola, though it probably ranks among the most misquoted, misrepresented and abused quotations in the book. Still, there is a basic truth, in that something fixed firmly in the mind by that age is unlikely ever to go away.
Something certainly fixed early on in many minds is an association between pirates and pieces of eight – in fact it’s an association made by huge numbers of people who couldn’t tell you what pieces of eight actually were.
It’s all down to Robert Louis Stevenson, and his classic adventure story, Treasure Island. The pirate Long John Silver’s parrot squawks ‘Pieces of Eight!’ repeatedly, and thanks to film and TV versions - which might well be more familiar than the book itself – it probably ranks among the world’s first great catch-phrases. In the last decade, Pirates of the Caribbean has come along to bump the great age of pirates and their treasure back up into the top layers of popular culture.
‘Pieces of Eight’ is one of many names for the large silver coins of the king of Spain, a multiple of the basic Spanish denomination, the silver real: so a piece of 8-reales, peso de ocho reales, or peso. It is also the original silver dollar, a name that starts out as a place in the Czech Republic in the sixteenth century and ends as the currency of the modern USA.
Pieces of eight pretty much ruled the monetary world from the 1570s till the French Revolution, the main vehicle for the transfer across the globe of silver from the great mines in Mexico and Bolivia in Spain’s American empire. It was a coin that would be familiar in every part of the inhabited world.
Throughout this period only infinitesimal quantities of pieces of eight ever fell into pirate hands. The Spanish operated a highly successful system of security and transport, the threats to which came from organised enemy fleets, not rag-tag pirate crews. Most of their silver sailed around the world paying for wars, encouraging trade, changing the fates of empires. You cannot write a history – especially an economic history - of the early modern world without engaging with pieces of eight. Pirates of the Caribbean merely nibbled on the insignificant fringes of this world.
In fact, our idea of pirates is probably even more distorted than our idea of pieces of eight. Piracy is an ancient and deadly trade, bringing ruin and suffering to millions across the millennia of human history. It is still rife today, as we know from horror stories on the news. Yet the word summons up the very specific world of the early eighteenth century Caribbean and the lives of individuals like Blackbeard and Henry Morgan, who were fictionalized practically while they still lived.
You can move from the early accounts of Blackbeard to fully fictional creations like Long John Silver, then to Captain Hook and Jack Sparrow and hardly ever touch much reality on the journey. Yet it does make for an exciting buccaneering voyage.