Doubloons are way outside my area of specialization--most of what I know about them comes from Moby-Dick--but I've often wondered why the word "escudo" is so often abbreviated on the reverse to "S". Does anyone know why this is? John
Dont know John. I suspect the origing of the word is either Spanish or maybe Italian. In Spanish it is always written ESCUDO (shield). Maybe it is written SCUDO in english text just because it is easier to pronounce without an E for anglophones?
I wasn't thinking so much of English text, Eduard, as of the reverse of some coins. This Web page http://www.worldbook.com/wb/Media?id=lr004088 has a picture of a doubloon--an 8 escudo coin--minted in Lima, Peru (so the writing would be in Spanish, right?) with the denomination "8 S" on either side of the shield on the reverse. Later, John
Thanks for that. I'm wondering whether I may have answered the question myself. Because the language round the rim of the coin is most certainly not Spanish--I can't think what came over me--it is Latin. So perhaps the denomination is in Latin too ... and the S is an abbreviation of "scutum", the Latin word for a shield, from which the Spanish and Portuguese word "escudo" comes? Does that sound convincing? John
John: Sounds reasonable. But, perhaps, just as the $ (for the American $) came form the symbol on the reverse (I am sure that someone will correct me shortly) from the pillar on the reverse with the vine (?) wrapping around it, perhaps the S was representative of the same symbol?
The dollar like symbol is called cifrãoa and yes Escudo does mean shield in both Spanish and Portugese so your theory might well be correct after all us Brits continued using d/s/£ for years and they were derived from the latin denarii/solidi/librae
