Mexican 8 Reales

The Mexican 8 Reales, often called the piece of eight, was the first coin minted in the New World, setting a standard for silver currency that echoed across continents.

Struck from Mexican silver mines, it featured a pillar design symbolizing Spanish dominion, with mintmarks indicating places like Mexico City or Guanajuato. These coins were produced on irregular planchets, sometimes recycled from older reales, which gave them a rugged edge that frustrated counterfeiters.

While myths abound about buried treasures, the reality is that exact mintages for many years remain unknown, lost to time or colonial record-keeping mishaps. I once handled a 1772 specimen that had traveled halfway around the world; turns out, not every coin has a pirate's tale.

Over its lifespan, the 8 Reales influenced everything from American colonial trade to the design of the U.S. dollar, but by 1897, it faded as economies modernized.