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Posted on 08/01/2025 2:49:05 PM PDT by nickcarraway
A piece of silver associated with pirate folklore has been extracted from a dig site in a quiet Australian town. Prospector Angus James was searching for treasure in Stawell, 237km northwest of Melbourne, when he found half a Mexican 8 reales coin.
“I first thought it might have been a half crown, but then I thought why is it cut in half? I was looking for the other half and couldn’t find it, so I took it home and washed it clean,” he told Yahoo News. Mexican 8 reales were linked to the term “pieces of eight” because they were cut into quarters and traded for their weight in silver. Mexico originally used Spanish silver dollars, which carry the same nickname, but the nation created its own version in the 1820s following independence.
The first Spanish reales were struck in 1497, and the coin eventually became the preferred international currency, making it desirable to traders. On the other side of the world, in the colony of NSW, Governor Lachlan Macquarie ordered 40,000 of them in 1812, and refashioned them with new markings.
(Excerpt) Read more at au.news.yahoo.com ...
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Finders Keepers … and then shut up.
> so I took it home and washed it clean <
I hope he did nothing more than run a little water over it. Many rare coins have lost value by cleaning them too vigorously.
Always consult with an expert first.
Ocho Reales were legal tender in the US until 1857. They were often cut to “bits” to fractionalize the value. There was 8 (Ocho) bits to a coin and that’s where the term “two bits” meaning a Quarter Dollar came from.
One day I used the term ‘two bits’ with a young engineer.
They were about 25 years old, and did not know what that meant.
So I did explain it. Utterly news to them.
I had that album
On cassette....
Ah the good old days
Duh. Did they look at you with the Gen Z Gaze?
Shave and a haircut... ;-)
I guess you mean to ‘him’, or ‘her’
... of gold doubloons and pieces of eight,
Pieces of eight,
Pieces of eight.
“Duh. Did they look at you with the Gen Z Gaze?”
Ha. I know that look. I got it when I told my youngest kids about adjusting the rabbit ears.
“I got it when I told my youngest kids about adjusting the rabbit ears”
We saw a hilarious video of a kid about 16 getting ready to use a road map for the first time.
Well, as an old engineer I did not know where the origin of “two bits” came from! Thanks!!
I guess you mean to ‘him’, or ‘her’
= = =
It was a her; I was being ‘consederate’.
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