If I have it correct, and samclem can let us know if I do, the “piece of eight” was the eight real or reale coin. The etymology doesn’t have to do with cutting it into pieces, but rather with the fact that it is the Eight Real Piece, or, if you will, the “piece of eight reales,” in the same way that you can have a $20 piece or a 10-pound piece.
It is true that reales could be, and often were, cut into smaller fractions when needed; this site shows a picture of a 2 reales coin cut in half. Please note that the site apparently buys into the mistaken concept of a 1 reale coin being a “piece of eight”; which fails to understand that the “piece of eight” was the 8 reales coin, not the fraction of same.
A perhaps better look at it all can be found here.
Thanks bonzer – that certainly makes sense in the context, as I recall it. A coin in an odd amount, that hadn’t been made in years, showing up in your change – kind of like an American getting a Susan B. Anthony.
the ‘joey’ was originally the fourpence [groat] issued for a while in Queen Victoria’s time. When this coin became obsolete the name seems to have transferred to the sixpence - although I never heard it used, and only learned of it recently.
Five shillings was sometimes referred to as a ‘dollar’ and two-and-six as ‘half a dollar’. Captured Spanish dollars [8 reales] once circulated at the rate of 4/9d
DS. You are correct. The OED cites from as early as 1610 make it clear.
They were talking about ‘dollar-sized’ coins.
The concept of cutting ‘dollar-sized’ eight reales coins into fractions is something, about which, I feel rather strongly. I have always maintained, after 33 years of buying coins for a living, that the practice was NOT common, probably was mainly confined to the Carribean Islands, and was not a general practice in the US mainland. I’ve bought thousands of coin hoards over the counter these last 30+ years. I have yet to buy a “cut” fractional piece of an “eight real”/dollar-sized coin, except for one or two pieces which were deliberately cut for use in the Islands. Can anyone tell me that all of the small, cut pieces were melted over the years so that they never turn up in collections/accumulations that are hundreds of years old?