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The Spanish dollar, also known as the piece of eight (Spanish: real de a ocho, dólar, peso duro, peso fuerte or peso), is a silver coin of approximately 38 mm (1.5 ...
The coins circulated throughout Spain's colonies and beyond, with the eight-real piece, known in English as the Spanish dollar, becoming an international standard and spawning, among other currencies, the United States dollar. A reform in 1737 set the silver real at two and half billon reales (reales de vellón) or eighty-five maravedís.
The silver 8-real coin was known as the Spanish dollar (as the coin was minted to the specifications of the thaler of the Holy Roman Empire and Habsburg monarchy), peso, duro 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 ...
The piece of eight had the same intrinsic value as the thaler and by the end of the 17th century it too was being called dollar (and was so designated in Jamaican monetary legislation of 1738). By the mid 18th century the piece of eight was commonly known in British North America as the Spanish dollar.
Banknote for "Twelve and a Half Cents" = $ 1 ⁄ 8, Alabama, 1838 In the US, the bit is equal to 12 + 1 ⁄ 2 ¢, a designation which dates from the colonial period, when the most common unit of currency used was the Spanish dollar, also known as "piece of eight", which was worth 8 Spanish silver reales.
The dollar itself actually originated from the peso or Spanish dollar in the late 18th century. The sign "₱" is used in the Philippines. The silver peso worth eight reales was also known in English as a Spanish dollar or "piece of eight" and was widely used for international trade from the 16th to the 19th century.
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The Spanish dollar was the basis of the United States silver dollar. ... By 1853, the value of a U.S. silver dollar contained in gold terms, $1.04 of silver, equal to ...