Hello, I have been assigned a research essay for my dual credit English literature class, where we use classic text and basically, write an essay using a prompt that we choose. I am writing about coins that were referenced in a text called "A short narrative of my life" by Olaudah Equiano. This man was a slave, but ended up purchasing his own freedom for 40 pounds, and was a slave in multiple countries including the Spanish colonies, the US colonies, and England. Amazingly, he mentioned multiple different denominations of coins in his text. I am wondering if you all have any general information about pistareens, bits (or 8 realz pieces), shillings, pounds, pences, or dollars, from the early 1760s era. It can simply be general information, or an article; which ever one is best for you. Also, please keep in mind that it is no rush as I have well over a month to complete this essay. Also, any information regarding how these coins may have been accepted differently in terms of monetary value will be greatly appreciate, because at this point I am fairly lost outside of the basics of the realz, bits, and pences. Thank you in advance for your time, I hope that you have a great day!
I wish you luck on your essay Brandon. I will leave it up to the experts on this forum to give you some guide lines. Dave
I think you may find far more help if you posted on the 'moderns' forum, since so many of them are actively collecting all of those types of coins right now. Of course, you could also access any auction and research the listed denomination, scroll through the coins and google other info from the identifications. Hopefully, some members can lead you to a few on-line references as well. Unfortunately, I sold off my 8 Reales' and the earliest US coin I still have is a 1798 one cent.....
Do your own research. Don't expect us to do it for you. Suggestions? Yes, but you, my friend, need to query yourself. We can't do it for you. We can't earn you that degree...........
Google too is your friend if you avoid the obvious Wikipedia articles and look for better sources... for example http://numismatics.org/wikiuploads/CNL/Pistareens.pdf
Hi Brandon ... This sounds like a most intriguing topic, and I applaud your interest in the coinage angle. Good thing that you have a month's time, as you'll have a lot to absorb in the process of writing your paper. Keep in mind that coins back then were valued strictly for their metal content - specie. The Spanish "dollars" or Eight Reale pieces were then the predominant worldwide currency. They were often cut into pieces as a means of making change, but there were half reale, one reale, two reale (a.k.a. 2 bits) and four reale coins, also. My avatar is a late 1700's two real piece that was counterstamped by a Philadelphia merchant in the 1850's. Spanish coins continued to circulate, particularly in our western territory and states, well into the late 1800's. This gives you some frame of reference for the importance of Spanish coins in worldwide trade. Best wishes with your project!
OK first you need to know the denominations in use, the base units and their relationships British used Pounds made up of 240 pence to the pound Coins were farthing (1/4 of a pence), half pence, six pence, shilling (12 pence), half crown (2 1/2 shillings or 18 pence), crown (5 shillings or 60 pence), sovereigns (1 pound or 20 shillings) and guineas (21 shillings) Spanish and spanish colonies used reales and what were called "spanish dollars" that were made up of 8 reales. Coins were quarter reale, half reale, reale, the pistereen, 2 reales, 4 reales, and the 8 reales or dollar (dollar was a colloquial term not an official denomination). In gold they had the escudo which equaled two dollars, the doubloon which equaled 4 dollars , and the 8 escudo which was 16 dollars. The pistereen was 1/5th of a spanish dollar US didn't have there own coinage in 1760, they mainly used Spanish or British coins. If you see a reference to X number of dollars during this time period they meant that number of Spanish 8 reales coins. If they make reference to a colony and dollars then they are speaking of a colony money of account. The individual colonies did have their own moneys of account but no actual physical coinage. The relationship between the different colony currencies can be quite confusing. They all based their money on the spanish "dollar" and had it equal to a set number of shillings, but each colony valued the dollar as a different number of shillings. So a shilling of SC was not the same as a shilling of NY and neither one was the same thing as a British shilling. The only similarity was that for each of them the shilling was 12 pence, but that mean the pence was not the same in each location either. Now you need to have some way of relating the different values to each other. The best thing is to use the 8 reales. It could be treated and being worth the same amount everywhere. In Britain it was worth 4 shillings 9 pence. Good rule of thumb for quick conversions is to treat it as a crown of five shillings or 5 Spanish dollars to the Pound. In the US the 2 reales was called a quarter dollar, the 4 reales a half dollar. The 1 reale was a bit and the quarter reale was a half bit. Now here is where the conversions get difficult. We are very used to thinking in cents, with a quarter being 25 cents and a half dollar being fifty cent etc. But in 1760 there were no cents and people were used to thinking in pence. So that would make a quarter dollar equal to 15 pence and Spanish dollar was 60 pence if the merchant was using the British money of account (a pistereen was 12 pence.) but a different number of pence if they were using a colony money of accounting. For example in NY and PA the Spanish dollar was roughly 96 pence (8 shillings/$) so a 2 reales or quarter dollar was 24 pence. In MA the dollar was 84 pence (7 shillings/$) so a quarter dollar was 21 pence. in the Carolinas it was 15 pence (5shillings/$), and in MD it was 18 pence for a quarter dollar (6 shilling/$) That should get you started.
