Provided to YouTube by Universal Music GroupPieces Of Eight StyxPieces Of Eight℗ An A&M Records Release; ℗ 1978 UMG Recordings, Inc.Released on: 1978-01-01. Join Pieces of 8 Charters for an unforgettable experience. Memories await while discovering the hidden gems of The Bahamas in comfort and style aboard our sleek 38ft Fountain powerboats. We look forward to hosting you to a journey of a lifetime! Pieces of Eight is a family owned and operated gift store opened in 1971. We offer an extensive bridal registry and stationery department as well as gifts for all occasions, plus a great selection of unique Cajun and Louisiana themed gifts. Dec 29, 2020 Pieces of eight are historical Spanish dollar coins minted in the Americas from the late 15th century through the 19th century. Made of silver, they were in nearly worldwide circulation by the late 19th century and were legal currency in the United States until 1857.
One of the most famousphrases in pirate lore, the term “pieces of eight” is the phrase uttered byLong John Silver’s parrot, the first real proof that Silver is really a pirate.But the coin is not only piratical, it is the basis of the American dollar, theCanadian dollar, the Japanese yen and the Chinese yuan. It was the first “worldcurrency” starting in the late 18th century. It’s definitely themost famous Spanish coin.
Although Spanish gold isa byword for the riches of the Caribbean, Spain was also looting the Americasof vast quantities of silver. While much gold was found already refined and inuse by the natives, silver was mined by the conquerors. In 1554 a Spanish merchantnamed Bartolomé de Medina developed a method of refining low-quality silver oreusing mercury and sea brine.
| An 8 Reales piece minted in Mexico in 1650 |
The concept of a largesilver coin with high purity (sometimes known as 'specie' coinage) hadbecome popular throughout Europe. In the 16th century, Count Hieronymus Schlickof Bohemia had begun minting coins known as Joachimsthalers (from German thal,or valley), named for the areas where the silver was produced. Joachimstalerwas later shortened to taler.
| The first thaler from 1525 |
So successful were thesecoins that similar thalers were minted in Burgundy and France. After 1575, theDutch used currency with a daalder depicting a lion, hence its Dutch nameleeuwendaalder. (Many traders did not think the picture of the lion was verygood, and traders, especially in the Caribbean, gave the coin the name “dog dollar.”)
Specifically tofacilitate export trade, the leeuwendaalder was lighter than the largedenomination coins then in circulation. Thus, it became the coin of choice forforeign trade. Dutch traders were traveling all over the world, and the coinbecame popular in the Middle East, and colonies in the east and west.
Money in Spain was basedon a system of reales (pronounced re-al-es’). Spain was commonly using an 8-real coin ofvery high quality in 1497. In 1537 the Spanish escudo gold coin was introduced,which was worth 16 reales. The later Gold Doubloon was worth 32 reales or 2escudos. It is this divisibility into 8 which caused the silver coins to benamed 'pieces of eight'.
Since the leeuwendaalderand the 8-reales piece were of very similar size, purity and value, they beganto be commonly referred to by the same name. “Dallder” was easier to say than “8reales piece” so it became the more common term. English voices quickly slurred“dallder” into “dollar”
Legend has it that the Spanishcoin’s markings made it easy to cut into 8 pieces in order to make changeduring a purchase. The coin wasn’t planned like this, but coinage in the New Worldwas in a state of chaos for a long time. Coinage was scarce, people were poor,and defacing money wasn’t a crime. It’s likely that coins were cut up in someestablishments and by some individuals.
This leads us to thecommon breakdowns of the dollar value – half dollar (coin cut in half), ¼ orone quarter dollar, usually called just a quarter (half a dollar cut in halfagain, or four pieces), and the “bit” which was half of a quarter.
The word “bit” is nolonger used in used in the US, but it survives in the old song, “Shave and ahaircut, two bits.” One programmerfriend of mine wonders of the “bit” coinage was the inspiration of the term “bit”in computer programming, since it was the smallest piece into which a coinwould be cut.
Thanks to the vast silverdeposits that were found in Mexico (for example, at Taxco and Zacatecas) andPotosí in modern-day Bolivia, and to silver from Spain's possessions throughoutthe Americas, mints in Mexico and Peru also began to strike the coin. The mainNew World mints for Spanish dollars were at Potosí, Lima, and Mexico City.
By far the leading speciecoin circulating in North America was the Spanish silver dollar, defined asconsisting of 387 grains of pure silver. Spanish dollars came into the NorthAmerican colonies through lucrative trade with the West Indies. The Spanishsilver dollar had been the world's outstanding coin since the early 16thcentury, and was spread partially because of the vast silver output of theSpanish colonies in Latin America. More important, however, was that theSpanish dollar, from the 16th to the 19th century, was relatively the moststable and least debased coin in the Western world.
Before the AmericanRevolution (and possibly one contributing factor to the Revolution) there was achronic shortage of British currency in Britain's colonies. Trade was oftenconducted with Spanish dollars that had been obtained by dealing with Caribbeanpirates. Spanish coinage was legal tender in the United States until theCoinage Act of 1857 discontinued the practice.
But some traditionalcharacteristics of the old pieces of eight lingered in America’s monetarysystem until very recently. The pricing of equities on U.S. stock exchanges in1⁄8-dollar denominations persisted until the New York Stock Exchange convertedfirst to pricing in sixteenths of a dollar on 24 June 1997, and shortly afterthat, to decimal pricing.
| 8 Reales from 1739. |
One last thing – Look closelyat the back of a Spanish eight-reales piece. See the two pillars on the back?They are supposed to represent the Pillar of Hercules – the two chunks of landthat frame the Straights of Gibraltar, gateway to the Mediterranean Sea. Butthe pillar on the right also looks a bit like this - $. In fact, it is believedto be the inspiration for the sign for American currency.
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