Spanish Coins - some old and quite rare currency

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The history of Spanish coins involves intriguing South American locales, sunken treasure and a hand in establishing the modern United States treasury – a shade more interesting than your run of the mill currency.

The history of Spanish coinage is linked to ancient times with the discovery of Greek and Roman coins in Spain, and during Roman times several mints were already actively working in the country. The weight and purity of colonial-era Spanish coins meant they were renowned around the world as benchmark for other currencies.

Spanish Coins spread through South America

From the 14th and 15th centuries the Spanish American empire stretched from the southern United States through the South American continent. The Spanish quickly made the most of the rich gold and silver deposits in South America, shipping the precious metals back to Spain in the form of rudimentary coins.

Coin mints were quickly established in Mexico City, Potosi, Bolivia; Lima, Santiago, and Bogota and Popayan in Colombia. These crudely shaped old coins, cut from bars of mined silver or gold were basically a weight measurement of the precious metals.

Once shipments arrived in Spain they were melted down and recast into Spanish currency. It’s widely held that the rare coins existing from this period were recovered from the many sunken galleons which failed to complete the treacherous journey back to Spain. Lost galleons have been found around the Florida Coast, the Bahamas and the Dominican Republic. The abundance of treasures sailing around these waters on their long journey back to Spain attracted some of the most famous pirates of the time to the Caribbean.

The basic Spanish coin in South America was the silver real. The famous eight-real coin (also known as a piece of eight or eight bits) was a widely circulated coin containing 412 grains of largely pure silver. The gold escudo was coined as a single unit, as well as in coin multiples of two, four and eight escudos. There were 16 reales to an escudo. The half real is the Spanish coin which would have been the most widely used in the United States.

American coinage is based upon the Spanish monetary system, as Spanish coins from South America were used as legal tender in the fledgling United States until 1857. The silver ‘Pillar’ coin is the coin most recognizable to many Americans, as it was used throughout the U.S. in the 1700s. A 1739 pillar dollar, minted in Mexico City, is a fine model of what is considered by many as one of the world’s most beautiful coins.

The Spanish peseta circulated through modern day Spain until 2002 and the introduction of the Euro, when the fixed rate of 166.386 pesetas per Euro was implemented.

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© The Pink Fridge Online Magazine 2009 - Coin Collecting UK

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