Row 10030

Row ID: 10030 | Dataset Entry | Axioma AXP Content Repository

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>Back then, coins were valued by their actual weight in silver or gold, not just on what they looked like. Spanish coins were preferred over other currency because they had a milled, or patterned, edge, which prevented dishonest traders from shaving slivers off the coins without being detected. Cutting money was not illegal, like it is now.

>In fact, it was expected that, to make change, they literally cut the coins into 8 pieces or “bits.” Hence, the British called the Spanish dollar a “Piece of Eight,” and when they said something cost “two bits,” they meant it cost a quarter of a dollar.

https://seahistory.org/sea-history-for-kids/pieces-of-eight/

Although this is disputed:

>So I think that you are under a slight misunderstanding, as we aren't talking about the Spanish real when speaking of pieces of eight, but the so called "Spanish Dollar". It was not called 'pieces of eight' "because it could be divided into halves, quarters, or eigths." These silver coins which are remembered in popular memory as "pieces of eight" were eight real coins. A singular coin would be a piece of eight, piece being a word for "a coin", and pieces of eight refering to multiple 8-real coins.

/r/AskHistorians/comments/5wgmrg/were_spanish_reals_physically_split_into_8_pieces/

This did happen at least to some extent though, example with [medieval English pennies.](https://coinfaq974389709.wordpress.com/2019/06/15/why-were-medieval-english-pennies-cut-into-halves-or-quarters/) This historical division of Spanish dollars into eighths and sixteenths persisted in US stock prices until the 21st century.

>Decimalization is a system where security prices are quoted using a decimal format rather than fractions. For example, this is a decimal trading quote: $34.25. Using fractions, the same quote would appear as $34 1/4. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ordered all stock markets within the U.S. to convert to decimalization by April 9, 2001. ...

>The roots for the stock market's fractional minimum pricing system can be traced back to the Spanish empire's use of silver piece-of-eight coins, which American colonists would cut up into eight bits to make change.

https://www.investopedia.com/terms/d/decimalization.asp

FieldValue
text >Back then, coins were valued by their actual weight in silver or gold, not just on what they looked like. Spanish coins were preferred over other currency because they had a milled, or patterned, edge, which prevented dishonest traders from shaving slivers off the coins without being detected. Cutting money was not illegal, like it is now. >In fact, it was expected that, to make change, they literally cut the coins into 8 pieces or “bits.” Hence, the British called the Spanish dollar a “Piece …
label r/investing
dataType comment
communityName r/investing
datetime 2024-05-20
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Raw Record

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  "text": ">Back then, coins were valued by their actual weight in silver or gold, not just on what they looked like. Spanish coins were preferred over other currency because they had a milled, or patterned, edge, which prevented dishonest traders from shaving slivers off the coins without being detected. Cutting money was not illegal, like it is now.\n\n>In fact, it was expected that, to make change, they literally cut the coins into 8 pieces or “bits.” Hence, the British called the Spanish dollar a “Piece of Eight,” and when they said something cost “two bits,” they meant it cost a quarter of a dollar.\n\nhttps://seahistory.org/sea-history-for-kids/pieces-of-eight/\n\nAlthough this is disputed:\n\n>So I think that you are under a slight misunderstanding, as we aren't talking about the Spanish real when speaking of pieces of eight, but the so called \"Spanish Dollar\". It was not called 'pieces of eight' \"because it could be divided into halves, quarters, or eigths.\" These silver coins which are remembered in popular memory as \"pieces of eight\" were eight real coins. A singular coin would be a piece of eight, piece being a word for \"a coin\", and pieces of eight refering to multiple 8-real coins. \n\n/r/AskHistorians/comments/5wgmrg/were_spanish_reals_physically_split_into_8_pieces/\n\nThis did happen at least to some extent though, example with [medieval English pennies.](https://coinfaq974389709.wordpress.com/2019/06/15/why-were-medieval-english-pennies-cut-into-halves-or-quarters/) This historical division of Spanish dollars into eighths and sixteenths persisted in US stock prices until the 21st century.\n\n>Decimalization is a system where security prices are quoted using a decimal format rather than fractions. For example, this is a decimal trading quote: $34.25. Using fractions, the same quote would appear as $34 1/4. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ordered all stock markets within the U.S. to convert to decimalization by April 9, 2001. ...\n\n>The roots for the stock market's fractional minimum pricing system can be traced back to the Spanish empire's use of silver piece-of-eight coins, which American colonists would cut up into eight bits to make change.\n\nhttps://www.investopedia.com/terms/d/decimalization.asp",
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