Coin of the Spanish Empire
|
Silver dollar of
Philip V of Spain
, 1739
|
|
Reverse
VTRAQUE VNUM M[EXICO] 1739
"Both (are) one, Mexico [City Mint], 1739"
Displays two hemispheres of a world map, crowned between the
Pillars of Hercules
adorned with the
PLUS VLTR[A]
motto.
|
Obverse
PHILIP[PUS] V D[EI] G[RATIA] HISPAN[IARUM] ET IND[IARUM] REX
"Philip V, by the Grace of God, King of the Spains and the Indies"
Displays the arms of
Castile and Leon
with
Granada
in base and an
inescutcheon
of
Anjou
.
|
|
Silver dollar of
Ferdinand VI of Spain
, 1753
|
|
Reverse
VTRAQUE VNUM M[EXICO] 1753 M
"Both (are) one, Mexico [City Mint], 1753." Displays two hemispheres of a world map, crowned between the Pillars of Hercules adorned with the
PLUS VLT[R]A
motto.
|
Obverse
FERD[INA]ND[US] VI D[EI] G[RATIA] HISPAN[IARUM] ET IND[IARUM] REX
"Ferdinand VI, by the Grace of God, King of the Spains and the Indies"
Displays the arms of Castile and Leon with
Granada
in base and an
inescutcheon
of
Anjou
.
|
|
Silver dollar of King
Charles IV of Spain
, 1806
|
|
Obverse
CAROLUS IIII DEI GRATIA 1806
"Charles IV by the Grace of God, 1806." Right profile of Charles IV in soldier's dress with laurel wreath. It was under the reign of this monarch that the
United States Mint
began the U.S. silver dollar in 1794.
|
Reverse
HISPAN[IARUM] ET IND[IARUM] REX M[EXICO] 8 R[EALES] T H
"King of the Spains and the Indies, Mexico [City Mint], 8 Reales." Crowned Spanish coat of arms between the Pillars of Hercules adorned with
PLVS VLTRA
motto
|
|
Silver dollar of
Ferdinand VII of Spain
, 1821
|
|
Obverse
FERDIN[ANDUS] VII DEI GRATIA 1821
"Ferdinand VII by the Grace of God, 1821." Right profile of Ferdinand VII with cloak and laurel wreath
|
Reverse
HISPAN[IARUM] ET IND[IARUM] REX M[EXICO] 8 R[EALES] I I
"King of the Spains and the Indies, Mexico [City Mint], 8 reales." Crowned Spanish coat of arms between the Pillars of Hercules adorned with
PLVS VLTRA
motto
|
|
The
Spanish dollar
, also known as the
piece of eight
(
Spanish
:
real de a ocho
,
dolar
,
peso duro
,
peso fuerte
or
peso
), is a
silver
coin
of approximately 38 mm (1.5 in) diameter worth eight
Spanish reales
. It was minted in the
Spanish Empire
following a monetary reform in 1497 with content 25.563 g (0.8219 ozt) fine silver. It was widely used as the first
international currency
because of its uniformity in standard and
milling
characteristics. Some countries
countermarked
the Spanish dollar so it could be used as their local currency.
[1]
Because the Spanish dollar was widely used in Europe, America, and the Far East, it became the first world currency by the 16th century.
[2]
[3]
[4]
The Spanish dollar was the coin upon which the original
United States dollar
was based (at 0.7735 troy ounces or 24.06 grams), and it remained
legal tender
in the United States until the
Coinage Act of 1857
. Many other currencies around the world, such as the
Japanese yen
and the
Chinese yuan
, were initially based on the Spanish dollar and other 8-real coins.
[5]
Most theories trace the origin of the
"$" symbol
, which originally had two vertical bars, to the pillars of Hercules wrapped in ribbons that appear on the reverse side of the Spanish dollar.
[6]
The term
peso
was used in Spanish to refer to this denomination, and it became the basis for many of the currencies in the former Spanish colonies, including the
Argentine
,
Bolivian
,
Chilean
,
Colombian
,
Costa Rican
,
Cuban
,
Dominican
,
Ecuadorian
,
Guatemalan
,
Honduran
,
Mexican
,
Nicaraguan
,
Paraguayan
,
Philippine
,
Puerto Rican
,
Peruvian
,
Salvadoran
,
Uruguayan
, and
Venezuelan
pesos. Of these, "peso" remains the name of the official currency in the Philippines, Mexico, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Colombia, Chile, Argentina, and Uruguay.
History
[
edit
]
Etymology
[
edit
]
In the 16th century, Count
Hieronymus Schlick
of
Bohemia
began minting a silver coin known as a
Joachimsthaler
, named after
Joachimsthal
,
the valley in the
Ore Mountains
where the silver was mined.
[7]
Joachimsthaler
was later shortened to
thaler
or
taler
, a word that eventually found its way into many European languages including the Spanish
talero
and English as
dollar
.
[7]
Europe and colonial North America
[
edit
]
The
Joachimsthaler
weighed 451 Troy
grains
(29.2 g; 0.94 ozt) of silver. So successful were these coins that similar
thaler
s were minted in
Burgundy
and France. This coin was then succeeded by the long-lived
Reichsthaler
of the
Holy Roman Empire
, used from the 16th to 19th centuries, of 25.984 g (0.8354 ozt) pure silver.
The Netherlands also introduced its own dollars in the 16th century: the Burgundian Cross Thaler (
Bourgondrische Kruisdaalder
), the German-inspired
Rijksdaalder
, and the Dutch liondollar (
leeuwendaalder
). The latter coin was used for Dutch trade in the Middle East, in the Dutch East Indies and West Indies, and in the
Thirteen Colonies
of North America.
[8]
For the English North American colonists, however, the Spanish peso or "piece of eight" has always held first place, and this coin was also called the "dollar" as early as 1581. After the
Declaration of American Independence
, the
United States dollar
was introduced in 1792 at par with this coin at 371.25 grains = 0.7735 troy ounces = 24.0566 g.
Alexander Hamilton
arrived at these numbers based on a treasury assay of the average fine silver content of a selection of worn Spanish dollars.
[9]
The term
cob
was used in Ireland and the British colonies to mean a piece of eight or a Spanish-American dollar, because Spanish gold and silver coins were irregularly shaped and crudely struck before the machine-milled dollar was introduced in 1732.
Spain
[
edit
]
After the introduction of the
Guldengroschen
in Austria in 1486, the concept of a large silver coin with high purity (sometimes known as "specie" coinage) eventually spread throughout the rest of Europe. Monetary reform in Spain brought about the introduction of an 8-real (or 1-peso) coin in 1497, minted to the following standards-
- In 1497:
8
+
3
⁄
8
dollars to a Castilian mark of silver (230.0465 grams),
134
⁄
144
or 0.9306 fine (25.563 g fine silver = 0.822 oz t)
- In 1728: $8.50 to a mark,
11
⁄
12
or 0.9167 fine (24.809 g fine silver = 0.798 oz t)
- In 1772: $8.50 to a mark,
130
⁄
144
or 0.9028 fine (24.443 g fine silver; but true fineness 1772?1821 believed to be only 0.89.
[10]
This was supplemented in 1537 by the gold
escudo
, minted at 68 to a mark of gold 0.917 fine (fineness reduced to 0.906 in 1742 and 0.875 in 1786). It was valued at 15?16 reales or approximately 2 dollars. The famed
Gold Doubloon
was worth 2 escudos or approximately 4 dollars.
From the 15th to the 19th centuries the coin was minted with several different designs at various mints in Spain and the
New World
, having gained wide acceptance beyond Spain's borders. Thanks to the vast silver deposits that were found mainly in
Potosi
in modern-day
Bolivia
and to a lesser extent in Mexico (for example, at
Taxco
and
Zacatecas
), and to silver from Spain's possessions throughout the Americas, mints in Mexico and
Peru
also began to strike the coin. The main New World mints for Spanish dollars were at
Potosi
,
Lima
, and
Mexico City
(with minor mints at
Bogota
,
Popayan
,
Guatemala City
, and
Santiago
), and silver dollars from these mints could be distinguished from those minted in Spain by the Pillars of Hercules design on the reverse.
The dollar or peso was divided into 8 reales in Spanish
Latin America
until 19th century when the peso was divided instead into 100 centavos. However, monetary turbulence in Spain beginning under the reign of
King Philip II
resulted in the dollar being subdivided as follows in Spain only:
- Until 1642: $1 = 8 reales, subsequently called
reales nacionales
- From 1642: $1 = 10
reales provinciales
- From 1687: $1 =
15
+
2
⁄
34
reales de vellon
(made of
billon alloy
; edict not effective)
- From 1737: $1 = 20
reales de vellon
- In 1864: $1 = 2
silver escudos
(different from the gold escudo)
- And finally, in 1869: $1 = 5
Spanish pesetas
, the latter at par with the
French franc
in the
Latin Monetary Union
.
Spain's adoption of the
peseta
in 1869 and its joining the
Latin Monetary Union
meant the effective end of the last vestiges of the Spanish dollar in Spain itself. However, the 5-peseta coin (or
duro
) was slightly smaller and lighter but was also of high purity (90%) silver.
In the 1990s, commemorative 2,000-peseta coins were minted, similar in size and weight to the dollar.
Mexico
[
edit
]
Following independence in 1821, Mexican coinage of silver reales and gold escudos followed that of Spanish lines until
decimalization
and the introduction of the peso worth 8 reales or 100 centavos. It continued to be minted to Spanish standards throughout the 19th century, with the peso at 27.07 g of 0.9028 fine silver, and the escudo at 3.383 g of 0.875 fine gold. The
Mexican peso
or 8-real coin continued to be a popular international trading coin throughout the 19th century.
After 1918, the peso was reduced in size and fineness, with further reductions in the 1940s and 1950s. However, 2- (1921), 5- (1947) and 10-peso (1955) coins were minted during the same period with sizes and fineness similar to the old peso.
Australia
[
edit
]
After the
colony of New South Wales
was founded in Australia in 1788, it ran into the problem of a lack of coinage, particularly since trading vessels took coins out of the colony in exchange for their cargo. In 1813, Governor
Lachlan Macquarie
made creative use of £10,000 in Spanish dollars sent by the British government. To make it difficult to take the coins out of the colony, and to double their number, the centres of the coins were punched out. The punched centre, known as the "dump", was valued at 15
pence
, and the outer rim, known as the "
holey dollar
", was worth five
shillings
. This was indicated by overstamping the two new coins. The obverse of the holey dollar was stamped the words "New South Wales" and the date, 1813, and the reverse with the words "five shillings". The obverse of the dump was stamped with a crown, the words "New South Wales" and the date, 1813, and the reverse with the words "fifteen pence". The mutilated coins became the first official currency produced specifically for circulation in Australia.
[11]
The expedient was relatively short lived. The
British Parliament
passed the Sterling Silver Money Act in 1825, which made British coins the only recognised form of currency and ended any legitimate use of the holey dollar and dump in the Australian colonies.
[12]
United States
[
edit
]
The
Coinage Act of 1792
created the
United States Mint
and initially defined the
United States dollar
at par with the Spanish dollar due to its international reputation:
By far the leading specie coin circulating in America was the Spanish silver dollar, defined as consisting of 387 grains of pure silver. The dollar was divided into "pieces of eight," or "bits," each consisting of one-eighth of a dollar. Spanish dollars came into the North American colonies through lucrative trade with the West Indies. The Spanish silver dollar had been the world's outstanding coin since the early 16th century, and was spread partially by dint of the vast silver output of the Spanish colonies in Latin America. More important, however, was that the Spanish dollar, from the 16th to the 19th century, was relatively the most stable and least debased coin in the Western world.
[13]
The
Coinage Act of 1792
specified that the U.S. dollar would contain 371.25 grains (24.057 g) pure or 416 grains (26.96 g) standard silver. This specification was based on the average weight of a random selection of worn Spanish dollars which
Alexander Hamilton
ordered to be weighed at the Treasury. Initially this dollar was comparable to the 371?373 grains found in circulating Spanish dollars and aided in its exportation overseas.
[14]
The restoration of the old 0.9028 fineness in the
Mexican peso
after 1821, however, increased the latter's silver content to 24.44 g and reduced the export demand for U.S. dollars.
Before the
American Revolution
, owing to British
mercantilist
policies, there was a chronic shortage of British currency in Britain's colonies. Trade was often conducted with Spanish dollars that had been obtained through illicit trade with the
West Indies
. Spanish coinage was legal tender in the United States until the
Coinage Act of 1857
discontinued the practice. The pricing of equities on U.S. stock exchanges in
1
⁄
8
-dollar denominations persisted until the
New York Stock Exchange
converted first to pricing in sixteenths of a dollar on 24 June 1997, and then in 2001 to decimal pricing.
Asia
[
edit
]
Long tied to the lore of
piracy
, "pieces of eight" were manufactured in the
Spanish Americas
and
transported
in bulk back to Spain, making them a very tempting target for seagoing pirates. In the
Far East
, it also arrived in the form of the
Philippine peso
in the
Philippines
as part of the
Spanish East Indies
of the
Spanish colonial empire
through the
Manila galleons
that transported
Mexican silver peso
to
Manila
in the
Manila-Acapulco Galleon Trade
,
[15]
[16]
where it would be exchanged for Philippine and
Chinese goods
,
[17]
[18]
since silver was the only foreign commodity China would accept. In Oriental trade, Spanish dollars were often stamped with Chinese characters known as "chop marks" which indicated that particular coin had been
assayed
by a well-known merchant and determined to be genuine. The specifications of the Spanish dollar became a standard for trade in the Far East, with later Western powers issuing
trade dollars
, and colonial currencies such as the
Hong Kong dollar
, to the same specifications.
The first
Chinese yuan
coins had the same specification as a Spanish dollar, leading to a continuing equivalence in some respects between the names "yuan" and "dollar" in the Chinese language. Other currencies also derived from the dollar include the
Japanese yen
,
Korean won
,
Philippine peso
,
Malaysian ringgit
,
French Indochinese piastre
, etc. since it was widely traded across the
Far East
in the
East Indies
and the
East Asia
.
[19]
Contemporary names used for Spanish dollars in Qing dynasty China include b?nyang (本洋), shu?ngzhu (?柱), zhuyang (柱洋), foyang (佛洋), fotou (佛頭), foyin (佛銀), and fotouyin (佛頭銀). The "fo" element in those Chinese names referred to the King of Spain in those coins, as his face resembled that of images of the Buddha (佛 in Chinese); and the "zhu" part of those names referred to the two pillars in the
Spanish coat of arms
.
Spanish dollar
countermarked
in other countries
[
edit
]
Fiction
[
edit
]
In modern pop culture and fiction, pieces of eight are most often associated with
the popular notion of pirates
.
- In
Robert Louis Stevenson
's
Treasure Island
,
Long John Silver
's parrot has learned to cry out "Pieces of eight!" This use tied the coin (and parrots) to
fictional depictions of pirates
. Deriving from the wide popularity of this book, "pieces of eight" is sometimes used to mean "money" or "a lot of money", regardless of specific denomination, and also as a synonym for treasure in general.
- In the film
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End
the Pirate Lords must meet together by presenting the "Nine Pieces of Eight", since these Pieces were used to seal the goddess
Calypso
in
her human form
by the first Brethren Court. The "ninth piece of eight" (
Jack Sparrow
's) hangs off his bandana in all films, up to its destruction in the third film.
- Pieces of Eight
is the eighth studio album and second concept album by
Styx
, released on 1 September 1978.
- In
Terry Pratchett
's
Going Postal
, the antagonist Reacher Gilt (who physically resembles a stereotypical pirate) has a cockatoo named Alphonse which has been trained to say "Twelve and half percent!", that is to say a single piece of eight.
[20]
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
"Dissemination of Hispanic-American coinage"
. Encyclopædia Britannica.
Archived
from the original on 29 December 2011
. Retrieved
7 February
2012
.
- ^
Woodcock, Ray (1 May 2009).
Globalization from Genesis to Geneva: A Confluence of Humanity
. Trafford Publishing. pp. 104?105.
ISBN
978-1-4251-8853-5
.
Archived
from the original on 10 February 2024
. Retrieved
13 August
2013
.
- ^
Thomas J. Osborne (29 November 2012).
Pacific Eldorado: A History of Greater California
. John Wiley & Sons. p. 31.
ISBN
978-1-118-29217-4
.
Archived
from the original on 10 February 2024
. Retrieved
13 August
2013
.
- ^
Davies, Roy.
"Origin and history of the world dollar and dollar sign"
.
Archived
from the original on 6 June 2023
. Retrieved
29 January
2019
.
- ^
Babones, Salvatore (30 April 2017).
"
'The Silver Way' Explains How the Old Mexican Dollar Changed the World"
.
The National Interest
.
Archived
from the original on 1 October 2023
. Retrieved
15 April
2019
.
- ^
Cordingly, David (1996).
Under the Black Flag: The Romance and the Reality of Life Among the Pirates
. Random House. p.
36
.
ISBN
9780679425601
.
- ^
a
b
National Geographic. June 2002. p. 1.
Ask Us
.
- ^
"Lion Dollar - Introduction"
.
coins.nd.edu
.
Archived
from the original on 10 July 2018
. Retrieved
29 May
2021
.
- ^
Oxford English Dictionary
, entry on "dollar", definition 2 ("The English name for the peso or piece of eight (i.e. eight
reales
), formerly current in Spain and the Spanish American colonies").
- ^
Sumner, W. G. (1898). "The Spanish dollar and the colonial shilling, pp 616-617: 24.038g fine / 27.07g = 0.89".
The American Historical Review
.
3
(4): 607?619.
doi
:
10.2307/1834139
.
JSTOR
1834139
.
- ^
"National Museum of Australia - Holey dollar"
.
www.nma.gov.au
.
Archived
from the original on 2 June 2021
. Retrieved
29 May
2021
.
- ^
"History: Fact Sheet 1"
(PDF)
.
Royal Australian Mint
. Australian Government. Archived from
the original
(PDF)
on 12 March 2011
. Retrieved
16 December
2015
.
- ^
Rothbard, Murray
,
Commodity Money in Colonial America
Archived
18 June 2015 at the
Wayback Machine
,
LewRockwell.com
- ^
Sumner, W. G. (1898). "The Spanish Dollar and the Colonial Shilling".
The American Historical Review
.
3
(4): 607?619.
doi
:
10.2307/1834139
.
JSTOR
1834139
.
- ^
Babones, Salvatore (30 April 2017).
"
'The Silver Way' Explains How the Old Mexican Dollar Changed the World"
.
The National Interest
.
Archived
from the original on 1 October 2023
. Retrieved
15 April
2019
.
- ^
"Report of the Philippine commission to the President, January 31, 1900, page 142-149, Part IX: The Currency"
. 1900.
Archived
from the original on 10 February 2024
. Retrieved
9 November
2021
.
- ^
Charles C. Mann
(2011),
1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created
, Random House Digital, pp. 123?163,
ISBN
978-0-307-59672-7
,
archived
from the original on 18 February 2023
, retrieved
9 November
2021
- ^
Brook, Timothy
(1998),
The Confusions of Pleasure: Commerce and Culture in Ming China
, Berkeley: University of California Press, p. 205,
ISBN
0-520-21091-3
,
archived
from the original on 18 February 2023
, retrieved
9 November
2021
- ^
"Chinese Guides for identifying Silver Dollars and Other Coins, 19th Century"
. 16 February 2018.
Archived
from the original on 21 March 2019
. Retrieved
7 February
2019
.
- ^
Pratchett, Terry
(2004).
Going Postal
. Doubleday.
ISBN
0-385-60342-8
.
Further reading
[
edit
]
External links
[
edit
]
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Circulating
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Circulating,
but renamed
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Defunct
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Noncirculating
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Conceptual
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Virtual
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Fictional
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Private
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See also
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Circulating
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Defunct
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See also
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Territories
|
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South America
|
---|
- New Granada
(
Colombia
,
Ecuador
,
Panama
,
Venezuela, part of Guyana
, a northernmost portion of Brazilian Amazon)
- Peru
(Peru,
Acre
,
Chile
)
- Rio de la Plata
(
Argentina
,
Paraguay
,
Charcas
(Bolivia),
Banda Oriental
(Uruguay),
Misiones Orientales
,
Malvinas
)
|
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Administrative subdivisions
|
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