It was the first global currency that preceded the British gold pound<\/a> sterling<\/em> and also the United States dollar.<\/strong> It was widely used and its hegemony in world trade extended for more than 300 years. Americans relied on his model to develop their own dollar, called the Spanish dollar or Spanish pillar dollar.<\/span><\/p>\n
The political protagonism, the historical projection and the prestige of Spain<\/a> as a great European power in the 16th century reached its highest level during the reigns of Carlos I and Felipe II, circumstances that were more than favorable for the birth of the Spanish international currency, the Real de a Ocho,<\/strong> the most accredited and demanded silver coin of its time.<\/span><\/p>\n
Even during the decline of the Spanish empire, the eight real continued to be a coveted coin around the world. In the years before and after independence from the United Kingdom in the 1770s, the United States<\/a> began to design its own currency, which it modeled on the Spanish imperial currency.<\/span><\/p>\n
And it didn’t just serve as a model for the US dollar. The Canadian dollar, the Chinese tael<\/a>, the Korean won and, of course, the currencies of the American republics that were born from independence from Spain were based on his model to establish themselves.<\/span><\/p>\n
The US dollar was born as a currency in 1785, but the\u00a0 Spanish Dollar<\/a> remained in force until 1857 when the “Coinage Act” finally took it out of circulation.<\/span><\/p>\n
It is believed that it comes from the union of the two columns of Hercules and the transformation of the letters P and S, which can refer to both the word “weight” and the expression “Plus Ultra”, the motorcycle that accompanies the coat of arms of the Spanish monarchy.<\/span><\/p>\n
A 1792 US law on the monetary system created the United States Mint, although the early US dollars were not as popular as Spanish dollars, as the latter were heavier and made of finer silver.<\/span><\/p>\n
A real de a 8 had a nominal weight of 550,209 Spanish grains, which are 27,468 grams in the metric system; with a purity of 93.055%. This meant that the 8 real contained 25,560 grams of silver, although its weight and purity varied significantly between different mints over the centuries.<\/span><\/p>\n
Instead, the aforementioned US law of 1792 specified that the US dollar would contain 27 grams of weight, of which only 24.1 grams were silver.<\/span><\/p>\n
The Napoleonic wars<\/strong> <\/a>and the independence of the Spanish provinces in America will mark the beginning of the end of the Spanish currency. By losing control of the American silver mines and their mints, Spain is left unable to continue producing its main export product. And despite the collapse of the empire, the eighth real turned out to remain a competitive currency until the end of the 19th century.<\/span><\/p>\n
In her book on the history<\/a> of the currency, the historian Mar\u00eda Ru\u00edz Trapero affirms that it was treasured in China<\/a>, India and the Middle East<\/strong> as it was their main reserve currency.<\/span><\/p>\n
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Piece of Eight – Columnarios – reales de a 8 – escudos – Duro\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Piece of Eight – The First Global Currency – Real de a Ocho It was the first global currency that preceded the British gold pound sterling and also the United States dollar. It was widely used and its hegemony in world trade extended for more than 300 years. Americans relied on his model to develop their own dollar, called the Spanish dollar or Spanish pillar dollar. The political protagonism, the historical projection and the prestige of Spain as a great … <\/p>\n
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