Common lore is that the 8 Reale - Piece of Eight - from the 18th and early 19th centuries were often cut into 2, 4 or 8 smaller pieces for transactions of less than 8 Reales. Has anyone ever seen one of these coins cut up in such a way? Of the hundreds of 8 Reales pictures I have seen I have never seen one cut in any way, other that chop marks.
ive been thinking the same thing. on coin shows, internet, and magazines, ive only seen the whole thing.
Check out VCoins, I've seen a few there from time to time. Usually it's cobs that get divided; once production started of milled coins it wasn't ling before 4, 2, and 1, Real coins were made. Later, even 1/2 and 1/4 Real.
Yes, I have seen many pictures and several examples in hand. They are not at all uncommon. And cut cobs as well as the milled coins are easily found. Dan Sedwick sells them on a fairly regular basis.
To answer my own question I spent a bit of time on the internet and came up with one picture of an 8 Reale coin which had apparently been cut into 5 (!) pieces - at least it was described as a 1/5 piece (1.6 Reales?).
Search thru this site David - Dan Sedwick - you should be able to find some. One of Dan's employees is even a member of Coin Talk. If nothing else, just contact them and ask about them.
Back when I started collecting in 72 they were fairly common and you would see them advertised fequently. Now they are seldom seen, and usually when you do see them they are a bit piece that has been counterstamped for use in another country and not just a generic cut bit.
Checked the site and found no pieces of Pieces of Eight. There was a single 2 Reale that had about 1/6 sliced off of an edge but that's it. I'll email them for more info.
