Term
Piece of eight
also known as Peso de a ocho, Spanish dollar
Definition
The Spanish silver coin of eight reals (hence the name), in circulation from 1497 to the mid-nineteenth century and the dominant international currency of the Atlantic and Pacific trade economies for most of that period. A standard piece of eight weighed approximately 27 grams and was about 93% silver. The coin was the standard unit of account in which Caribbean prize-shares were divided; the per-man share of perhaps £1,000 from Henry Every’s 1695 Mughal prize translates to approximately five thousand pieces of eight in the contemporary Indian Ocean rates of exchange.
