What is the proper way to spell "reale" when it pertains to the older mexican "pieces of eight". I see a lot of people spell it "reale". My book spells it "real". I've also seen some references that spell it "riale". Which way is most correct? Or all they all correct and mean the same thing? Thanks.
The term reale has been used many times over the centuries. It has had various spellings depending upon the country that was using it at the time. It has been spelled as reale, real, ryal, riale and rial. There are probably even a few more that do not come to mind right now. But the most widely accepted spelling when talking about Spanish colonial coinage is - reale.
'Real' is actually the singular for 'Reales'.The coins in the Spanish-American series are 1/4,1/2,& 1 Real,2,4,& 8 Reales.
Not quite Aidan - they are two different spellings of the same word. The singular is reale - the plural is reales. The word is Spanish - English rules of grammar and spelling do not aplly.
GDJMSP,if you look in Krause,they list the Piece of 1 as a '1 Real'.A friend of mine confirmed that 'Reales' is the plural.
