How did coins get to colonial America?
Coins found their way to the colonies in a variety of ways. Some were made here, some were made in Europe for use here, and others found their way to our shores in the course of both legitimate commerce and smuggling. What are “pieces of eight?” Pieces of eight are Spanish or Spanish Colonial eight-reales silver coins, roughly equivalent to a dollar, or a British crown, or a French ecu. They could be round and well-struck, like the “pillar dollar” or “milled dollar,” or crudely struck on irregular pieces of metal, called cobs.
