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one piece of eight


BoneMaster

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Where does that One Piece of "EIGHT" really come from?

 

What is an eight? Are eight pieces of eight a full eight?

 

sometimes the MI-tourists make me mad... I've never spent nor owned any Pieces of Eight, altho' one crazy tourist put a piece of eight into my ear once!

 

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Guest grannen

If George Washington did throw a silver dollar across the Potomac, it surely was a Spanish dollar.

 

The Spanish dollar, perhaps better known as the eight reales or piece of eight, circulated widely in the United States long before there were US dollars. It was the model for the US dollar. Spanish coins served as legal tender in the United States, and were only demonetized in 1857.

 

Testaments to the importance of these coins continue in that "two bits," "pieces of eight" and "picayune" have become part of the American vocabulary. Also, it is interesting to observe that when the New York Stock Exchange opened in 1792 rates were reported in terms of New York shillings which were valued at eight to the Spanish milled dollar, hence changes were reported in eighths. Amazingly, over two hundred years after adoption of the decimal system, stock and security price variations are still reported in eighths!

 

So, one reale is a 1/8th of a Spanish silver dollar and a piece of eight is one Spanish silver dollar (eight reales).

 

REALES, [reialeis] spanish silver coins & money of account.

[span. = Royal] Royal Money

 

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Calvin.gifHobbes_2.gif and Grannen

 

 

 

[This message has been edited by Grannen (edited March 20, 2001).]

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let me do some searching around, i KNOW that there was a culture that used the "eight" system in money, ill find it, im NOT crazy.

 

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STILL the resident punk rocker!

Stop pretending that you don't want me.

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