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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Burton Strauss III, post: 5401041, member: 59677&quot;]Yes. If you didn&#039;t have the smaller coins, the larger one could be cut up.</p><p><br /></p><p>8 reales = $1</p><p><br /></p><p>4 reales = 50c</p><p><br /></p><p>2 reales = 25c</p><p><br /></p><p>1 reale = 12.5c (also called a bit)</p><p><br /></p><p>1/2 reale = 6.25c</p><p><br /></p><p>1/4 reale = 3.125c</p><p><br /></p><p>Thus the half dismes at 5c were an innovation.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>Very few of the cut up coins are genuine- they were melted and turned into Federal coinage over the years.</p><p><br /></p><p>It&#039;s not unti the coinage act of 1857 that the Treasury was stopped from paying foreign coins back out.</p><p><br /></p><p>That law also mandated the director of the mint report yearly on the coins and fineness still in circulation. So those reports give a view into what was money before it all became US coins.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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