2 ms·
From when you would literally cut up the single coin into bits to use for smaller payments.
by njarboe 8y ago
From when you would literally cut up the single coin into bits to use for smaller payments.
- dredmorbius 8y agoI'm not finding aany substantiation of that. The coin was actually 8 reals, not 1 real as I'd indicated above. Also known as a peso or Spanish dollar. Peso: "a weight" https://www.etymonline.com/word/peso https://www.etymonline.com/word/peso
- njarboe 8y agoYou are right. "pieces of eight" seems to come from the phrase pieces of eight reals, with the real being the Spanish unit of silver money. Although I would guess and this site states that they did get cut up from time to time to make change[1]. [1]https://www.history.org/history/teaching/enewsletter/volume3/march05/iotm.cfm https://www.history.org/history/teaching/enewsletter/volume3...