8 reales from cazador shipwreck

Like I said, that Home Shopping coin show brainwashed me...

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

Lemme guess, kinda hard to argue because you saw it on a coin you spent, and named it?

 

I would refrain from repeating anything said in an advertisement designed to get you to buy a product, especially this show. I know you are excieted to share information that you think is unique, but then it gets repeated as a fact and becomes misleading.

 

Eric Newman did a nice study on the origin of the dollar sign. According to him it came from the abbreviation for Pesos which was used for the spanish 8 reales. Originally it was written as Ps, then the s became superimposed on the upright of the P. As time passed the upper loop of the P got smaller while the S got bigger. Eventually the upper loop of the P disappeared just leaving the upright through it. $ He had a series of account books covering maybe a 100 year period that illustrated the evolution of the symbol. It is possible though that the superimposing of the S on the P could have been suggested by the Potosi mintmarks on some of the 8 reales that the bookkeeper had on hand.

 

That is just me joking around Salty. Actually I have read this information in several places. As for how the $ symbol came to be, there are different theories. Which one do you believe is correct and based on fact? Could the Potosi mint mark be based on the pillars of Hercules w/ banner?

 

"A common theory holds that it derives from the Spanish coat of arms engraved on the colonial silver coins, the reals, (among them the Spanish dollar) that were in circulation in Spain's colonies in America and Asia. Reals and Spanish dollars were also legal tender in the English colonies in North America, which later became part of the United States and Canada"

This goes through all the current theories:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dollar_sign

Edit: Also there is this "$" symbol, and the one with 2 vertical lines. I've always drawn this symbol with 2 vertical lines.

 

Modern day treasure hunters, I love it!

 

I'm not sure which origin contributed to the dollar sign as we sometime see it. Interestingly the Mint uses an incomplete single line on all our circulating one dollar coinage. A short line atop and below an S shaped symbol. The BEP doesn't use one at all.

 

That was my attempt at an old joke.

 

Here are some interesting comparisons.

 

The Cazador coins are interesting only for two reasons.

1. They are shipwreck coins, with an interesting story behind them of how the USA might look entirely different had that ship arrived.
2. They provide an option to purchase fairly decent specimens of portrait dollars at low prices.

However, 2) is because all the coins are damaged. Silver and salt water do not go together well. You can find beautiful coins if you spend ~300$, but they will always be "damaged goods" compared to an 8R that hasn't spent time underwater (although you'd pay much more, of course).

 

The Potosi mint P+T+S+I, and the Peso P+S, all had letters joined in an interesting way. Joined to resemble a pillar / banner? The pillars w/ banner was basically the symbol for money back then.

 

You are wearing me down . I could cite a whole bibliography and so could you. In the end these are all theories. I’m waving the white flag. Good discussion though.

 

I agree with you GDM. It's important to check your sources. But I must say that it is getting increasingly difficult with the amount of crappy information heavily outweighing the credible information. A lot of stuff on the Internet is actually just hearsay. Sometimes even seemingly credible sources get their information from unreliable places. (Wikipedia is an example)

 

Swervo513 – I also agree there is a lot of unreliable sources out there online and in literature. The reason I linked Wiki is because it went through all the theories (to be fair), and made it easy for someone else reading the thread to see what we were discussing.

Doug – I hope you know that I respect your knowledge, background, and job as administrator. This and "black ring airtites" is the only thing we have disagreed with; and I have read many of your debates on CT. I just feel this debate could go on forever like “Global Warming” and “Did Dinosaurs Exist At The Same Time As Man”. Working 60+ hours a week, and having family in town for the holidays makes me not have the energy for debate like Juan Blanco has . At some point I lost track on what we were really talking about. The dollar sign with one vertical line or two? And going off the Potosi Mint Mark theory; are you saying that was the origin of the dollar sign in the USA, another country, or the origin of the dollar sign period? To me, this pillar:

is the closest thing that resembles the modern day dollar sign. If you would give me your main source in why you believe the Potosi Mint Mark theory is correct, I will try to search it out over the holidays to look at it.

 

If it's on the internet, it must be true. Bon jour.

PS Get back to work, John.