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1776 Spanish Colony 8 Reales - Which One Used by US Colonists?
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<p>[QUOTE="kevin McGonigal, post: 3131583, member: 72790"]As stated above what the American Colonists were concerned about was the weight and purity of their coinage, no matter where it was minted. It was common for colonial merchants dealing with a coin-paying public (like taverns) to have touchstones and scales to determine value. After independence and the adoption of the US Constitution the federal government published abstracts from time to time, right up to the mid 19th Century, which established just what foreign coinage was legal tender within the US and what its value was in US equivalents. The US Government did not seem to be concerned about which mints Spanish coins came from in determining their worth, with one exception. The coinage of the Spanish mints on the Iberian Peninsula used a somewhat different design and their weights and fineness showed variation compared to that of their colonial mints, for example what were called pistareens. Because of this variation, such pistareen Spanish coins were NOT legal tender in the US though they did circulate here and from time to time adds in newspapers would offer to buy and sell them in quantity. Close in size to colonial mint coins, like the pistareen, some of the Spanish Iberian mint coins like the two bit (reales) pieces had values of 18 to 20 cents (a short two bits). The only thing the US mints began to worry about by the Jacksonian period (ca. 1825-1840) was the light weight of all worn Spanish pieces compared to what the weight of the eight reales and US dollar were supposed to be. It is interesting that when all foreign coins ceased to be legal tender in 1857, Spanish coins from Latin American mints were still to be honored at US post offices which accepted them for decades but at the short bit rate of ten cents (not 12 and a half cents) a bit. It's probably impossible to answer the OP's original question as to which mint issued the most coins that wound up in Colonial America. While Mexico City coins might be more available on the American market today, that may be an indication of some other factor than their ubiquity in Colonial America.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>
[QUOTE="kevin McGonigal, post: 3131583, member: 72790"]As stated above what the American Colonists were concerned about was the weight and purity of their coinage, no matter where it was minted. It was common for colonial merchants dealing with a coin-paying public (like taverns) to have touchstones and scales to determine value. After independence and the adoption of the US Constitution the federal government published abstracts from time to time, right up to the mid 19th Century, which established just what foreign coinage was legal tender within the US and what its value was in US equivalents. The US Government did not seem to be concerned about which mints Spanish coins came from in determining their worth, with one exception. The coinage of the Spanish mints on the Iberian Peninsula used a somewhat different design and their weights and fineness showed variation compared to that of their colonial mints, for example what were called pistareens. Because of this variation, such pistareen Spanish coins were NOT legal tender in the US though they did circulate here and from time to time adds in newspapers would offer to buy and sell them in quantity. Close in size to colonial mint coins, like the pistareen, some of the Spanish Iberian mint coins like the two bit (reales) pieces had values of 18 to 20 cents (a short two bits). The only thing the US mints began to worry about by the Jacksonian period (ca. 1825-1840) was the light weight of all worn Spanish pieces compared to what the weight of the eight reales and US dollar were supposed to be. It is interesting that when all foreign coins ceased to be legal tender in 1857, Spanish coins from Latin American mints were still to be honored at US post offices which accepted them for decades but at the short bit rate of ten cents (not 12 and a half cents) a bit. It's probably impossible to answer the OP's original question as to which mint issued the most coins that wound up in Colonial America. While Mexico City coins might be more available on the American market today, that may be an indication of some other factor than their ubiquity in Colonial America.[/QUOTE]
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