can you tell me about the pieces of 8 coins.?

Question

my mom inheritted coins that are known as pieces of 8 which are said to be fom pirates?! well i was wondering does anyone know what the prices usually run on them? and can you tell me a little about them. thanks

Answer 1

"The Spanish dollar (also known as the "piece of eight", the "real de a ocho", or the "eight real coin") is the silver coin, worth eight reales, that was minted in the Spanish Empire after a Spanish currency reform in 1497. It was legal tender in the United States until an Act of the United States Congress discontinued the practice in 1857. Through widespread use in Europe the Americas and the Far East, it became the first world currency by the late 18th century. Many existing currencies, such as the Canadian dollar, United States dollar and the Chinese yuan, as well as currencies in Latin America and the Philippines are based on the Spanish dollar.[citation needed]
Today the term peso is sometimes used interchangeably to include the historic Spanish eight real coin. This is primarily because pesos were of similar weight and diameter to the eight real coin. However, the term peso did not appear on Spanish coinage until 1864, and it is more accurate to refer to the older coinage as the eight real coin, which was also called the Spanish dollar or colloquially "a piece of eight."

for more, please see link 1 below

"Pieces of Eight and Doubloons are two common terms thrown around quite liberally in the old Pirate movies. Other coins such as "Reales" and "Escudos" are rarely mentioned. So what exactly are these coins?
During the Golden Age of Piracy (and well into the 19th Century) A Piece of Eight was a Spanish or Spanish American coin roughly that was roughly equivalent to today's dollar coin. however, However unlike today's American dollar which is worth 100 pennies, the Piece of Eight was worth, you guessed it, eight of Spain's small common demonination, the Reale (sometimes spelled "real").

As such the Piece of Eight was clearly marked with the number "8". It may sound strange to some people to have 1/8 pieces but at one time the U.S. Dollar also was divided into eight pieces or bits. Remember the nursery rhyme "two bits, four bits, six bits, a dollar"? Mexico continued to use a monetary system similar to the old Spanish Piece of Eight well into the 19th Century.

It sounds strange to use a phrase such as "piece of" to describe a coin but a quick look at the Oxford English Dictionary will make it obvious that this was common practice in the English of time. Today, we would call it an "Eight Real Piece or Coin" similar to a "$20 Gold Piece" or "Ten Mark Piece" Just about any reale might be refered incorrectly as a "Piece of Eight" but all where clearly minted as 1, 2, 4, and 8 reale pieces. Sometimes, the coins would be cut up or cut in half. so if you cut an 8 reale coin in half the two halves would each be worth four reales. Becuase the coins were made of pure silver, cutting them into pieces did little to decrease their value.

So we now know that the Piece of Eight was a standard dollar in Old Spain. Where does that leave the Doubloon and what is this Escudo that I'm talking about? Well the Escudo was a coin equivlent to two Pieces of Eight. Escudoes also came in 1, 2, 4, and 8 Escudoes pieces. A Doubloon was equal to eight Escudoes or sixteen Eight Reale coins..

The Piece of Eight was silver coin and the Doubloon is a "gold piece".

The Spanish money would've been easy to spend in the many islands of The Caribbean and becuase it was made of gold or silver, its equivilent worth was easily transferable to coins of the English Empire."

For more, please see link 2

as for how much they're worth today:

"Item#: Special Sale
Denomination: 4 and 8 reales
Mint: Spanish colonial
Assayer: Various
Weight: Various
Diameter: Various

Price: $99.00

see link 3, please

or more, see link 4, please:

"Lady Burgess Shipwreck Coin 8 Reales 1803 Bust Type
US $340.00


Lady Burgess Shipwreck Coin 8 Reales 1803 Choice Bust
US $395.00



Lady Burgess Shipwreck Coin 8 Reales 1802 Seville VF
US $395.00


Lady Burgess Shipwreck Coin 8 Reales 1802 Seville Fine-
US $135.00



Burgess Shipwreck Coin 8 Reales 1798 Madrid VF Scarce
US $525.00

Answer 2

Piece Of 8

Answer 3

For the best answers, search on this site https://shorturl.im/av0dN

I think your popaw was smart enough to know real gold from a toy. If it was a counterfeit, it would rust only if there was iron in it. If it was silver plated over with gold, it might tarnish in spots, but if it was lead plated in gold, it might just look dirty. Lead was often used to make counterfeit gold coins because it was cheap and it was heavy (dense) enough to be used for a coin. Gold is by far the most dense metal, with lead about 10% denser than silver. Taking the coin to any gold and silver shop will have you knowing in minutes if the piece is solid gold (roughly 22k) or just plated. If it turns out to be solid gold, you will at least have the gold value, but some gold coins are so valuable that making counterfeits out of gold, back when gold was a lot cheaper, was well worth doing. When gold was at $300, you needed maybe $250 worth to make one of these, and if a real one is selling for $10,000 or more, counterfeiters did it. So if it turns out to be real gold, it will still need to be authenticated as genuine by one of the two major grading services, NGC or PCGS.

Answer 4

Spanish Pieces Of Eight

Answer 5

This Site Might Help You.

RE:
can you tell me about the pieces of 8 coins.?
my mom inheritted coins that are known as pieces of 8 which are said to be fom pirates?! well i was wondering does anyone know what the prices usually run on them? and can you tell me a little about them. thanks

Answer 6

link 3 is dead