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1776 Spanish Colony 8 Reales - Which One Used by US Colonists?
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<p>[QUOTE="GDJMSP, post: 3132424, member: 112"]I don't think there are a lot of folks who truly understand what happened, and why, in Europe, once Spain had discovered and established its colonies in the New World. Nor do they understand the particulars of the Spanish colonial coinage. In the beginning the King ordered that all the silver and gold found be minted into coins and shipped back to Spain. But he did not do this so that the coins could be used in commerce, to the contrary, the colonial coinage was forbidden to even circulate in Spain. He did it as a bookkeeping measure, it was far easier to keep track of things, to count actual coins, than it was to keep track of bars. Spanish colonial coins were nothing more than bullion. And minting coins made it much harder for his people in the colonies to cheat. And once all the colonial coins got to Spain they were melted down and minted into regular Spanish coinage. Also realize that almost all of the early colonial coinage was cobs, things that could not, would not even be recognized as being coins anywhere else. Their only requirement was the weight, fineness, and the Royal seal being recognizable. But keep in mind the time period, I'm still talking about the beginning here - up until 1600. The very first Spanish colonial coin was not even minted until 1536. And for the first decade or so they were very few in number. Point being, that only leaves us with about 50 years worth of large numbers being minted.</p><p><br /></p><p>Ya see, 1600 was a pivotal point. Prior to that the Spanish were able to use all that silver in trade in Europe itself, not as coins, as bullion, small pieces of silver bullion. But it soon got to the point that there was so much Spanish silver coming into Europe that there was quite literally too much of it. Nobody even knew what to do with it all. At or around 1600 the other European countries even refused to take silver in trade from Spain. They insisted that all payments for trade goods be made with gold. Their economies could not stand any more silver, there was so much of it that it was becoming worthless. The Spanish didn't even know what to do with all their silver. They were melting and minting all they could, and they still had hundreds of tons of silver left over - that nobody would take.</p><p><br /></p><p>At this point they had to do something so that's when the King ordered that colonial silver be shipped from the colonies directly to Asia. A lot went to the ports in the Philippines, some to India, some to China. And yes it was all still colonial coins, but they were not treated as coins in Asia, they were treated as small chunks of silver bullion to be melted down and used as local coins or something else. This was the only way that the Spanish could get rid of their silver.</p><p><br /></p><p>But 1600 was also pivotal for another reason, the flow of silver was slowing down. It was no where near what it used to be. The following is a single paragraph taken from a study on the the subject. It explains a lot, especially regarding the quantities in relation to the time period.</p><p><br /></p><p><i>Imports of American treasure followed a roughly similar pattern. They averaged approximately 7,000,000 pesos per year in the 1590s, then dropped to between 5,000,000 and 6,000,000 annually between 1600 and 1625. From that point they fell rapidly, dropping to little more than 2,000,000 annually between 1646 and 1650 and only 500,000 in the years 1656-1660. The crown's share of the American treasure began to fall both earlier and more rapidly. Royal treasure receipts of American bullion averaged somewhat more than 1,500,000 pesos from 1595 to 1615, dropped to less than 1,000,000 annually [297] from 1616 to 1645, dwindled to less than 400,000 during the ten years after that, and averaged little more than 100,000 annually between 1656 and 1660.</i></p><p><br /></p><p>What it says there is self explanatory, and it continued to drop after that. By around 1640 the value of the goods going from Spain to the New World exceeded the value of silver, gold, and goods coming from the New World.</p><p><br /></p><p>Perhaps the greater point being made here is that after this time the number of Spanish colonial coins was quite low. There simply was not a lot of them even being minted anymore. The ones were all most familiar with, Pillar dollars and Portrait dollars, they existed in the lowest numbers of all. And Pillar dollars began being minted in 1732, with Portraits appearing 1773 I think it was. And even the vast majority of them were still treated as being nothing more than small chunks of bullion and melted down.</p><p><br /></p><p>But by the 1700's the colonies were growing, population was increasing. But not that big. In 1710 the population of New York, one of the largest if not the largest, was only 6,000 people. And 6,000 people can only use so many coins. But, as it turns out, there was a perpetual coin shortage in the colonies - none of them ever had enough coins. And not just the American colonies, this was also true of the Mexican and South American colonies. And what this tells us is that the number of Spanish colonial coins in actual circulation anywhere was very, very, low indeed.</p><p><br /></p><p>And that is why so few of these coins from most of the colonial mints exist today at all (with the exception of Mexico and Potosi). In some cases one or two of these mints were not even known to exist for sure until recent years. One case in point is the mint in Panama.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>
[QUOTE="GDJMSP, post: 3132424, member: 112"]I don't think there are a lot of folks who truly understand what happened, and why, in Europe, once Spain had discovered and established its colonies in the New World. Nor do they understand the particulars of the Spanish colonial coinage. In the beginning the King ordered that all the silver and gold found be minted into coins and shipped back to Spain. But he did not do this so that the coins could be used in commerce, to the contrary, the colonial coinage was forbidden to even circulate in Spain. He did it as a bookkeeping measure, it was far easier to keep track of things, to count actual coins, than it was to keep track of bars. Spanish colonial coins were nothing more than bullion. And minting coins made it much harder for his people in the colonies to cheat. And once all the colonial coins got to Spain they were melted down and minted into regular Spanish coinage. Also realize that almost all of the early colonial coinage was cobs, things that could not, would not even be recognized as being coins anywhere else. Their only requirement was the weight, fineness, and the Royal seal being recognizable. But keep in mind the time period, I'm still talking about the beginning here - up until 1600. The very first Spanish colonial coin was not even minted until 1536. And for the first decade or so they were very few in number. Point being, that only leaves us with about 50 years worth of large numbers being minted. Ya see, 1600 was a pivotal point. Prior to that the Spanish were able to use all that silver in trade in Europe itself, not as coins, as bullion, small pieces of silver bullion. But it soon got to the point that there was so much Spanish silver coming into Europe that there was quite literally too much of it. Nobody even knew what to do with it all. At or around 1600 the other European countries even refused to take silver in trade from Spain. They insisted that all payments for trade goods be made with gold. Their economies could not stand any more silver, there was so much of it that it was becoming worthless. The Spanish didn't even know what to do with all their silver. They were melting and minting all they could, and they still had hundreds of tons of silver left over - that nobody would take. At this point they had to do something so that's when the King ordered that colonial silver be shipped from the colonies directly to Asia. A lot went to the ports in the Philippines, some to India, some to China. And yes it was all still colonial coins, but they were not treated as coins in Asia, they were treated as small chunks of silver bullion to be melted down and used as local coins or something else. This was the only way that the Spanish could get rid of their silver. But 1600 was also pivotal for another reason, the flow of silver was slowing down. It was no where near what it used to be. The following is a single paragraph taken from a study on the the subject. It explains a lot, especially regarding the quantities in relation to the time period. [I]Imports of American treasure followed a roughly similar pattern. They averaged approximately 7,000,000 pesos per year in the 1590s, then dropped to between 5,000,000 and 6,000,000 annually between 1600 and 1625. From that point they fell rapidly, dropping to little more than 2,000,000 annually between 1646 and 1650 and only 500,000 in the years 1656-1660. The crown's share of the American treasure began to fall both earlier and more rapidly. Royal treasure receipts of American bullion averaged somewhat more than 1,500,000 pesos from 1595 to 1615, dropped to less than 1,000,000 annually [297] from 1616 to 1645, dwindled to less than 400,000 during the ten years after that, and averaged little more than 100,000 annually between 1656 and 1660.[/I] What it says there is self explanatory, and it continued to drop after that. By around 1640 the value of the goods going from Spain to the New World exceeded the value of silver, gold, and goods coming from the New World. Perhaps the greater point being made here is that after this time the number of Spanish colonial coins was quite low. There simply was not a lot of them even being minted anymore. The ones were all most familiar with, Pillar dollars and Portrait dollars, they existed in the lowest numbers of all. And Pillar dollars began being minted in 1732, with Portraits appearing 1773 I think it was. And even the vast majority of them were still treated as being nothing more than small chunks of bullion and melted down. But by the 1700's the colonies were growing, population was increasing. But not that big. In 1710 the population of New York, one of the largest if not the largest, was only 6,000 people. And 6,000 people can only use so many coins. But, as it turns out, there was a perpetual coin shortage in the colonies - none of them ever had enough coins. And not just the American colonies, this was also true of the Mexican and South American colonies. And what this tells us is that the number of Spanish colonial coins in actual circulation anywhere was very, very, low indeed. And that is why so few of these coins from most of the colonial mints exist today at all (with the exception of Mexico and Potosi). In some cases one or two of these mints were not even known to exist for sure until recent years. One case in point is the mint in Panama.[/QUOTE]
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