The Spanish "Real" or "Royal" coin aka the Dollar
The Spanish coins were widely used in British colonial America. In fact Spanish coin was the World's Reserve Currency. The Spanish new world silver and gold mines were prodigious. Mike Robinson, author of Winchester Tales recently found in Frederick County Virginia a 1797 Spanish coin, minted in Mexico, These and other international coins were ruled non-legal in 1857.
The coin in the picture below shows 8 Real, whereas Mike Robinson's find is 1 Real. These Spanish coins tell a story.
On the obverse is the bust of Charles IV , (ruling 1788 1808) shown as IIII (instead of IV) per typical Spanish usage at the time.
The legend is Latin: "Carolus (Charles) IIII Dei Gratia (By the Grace of God)".
The legend continues onto the reverse as "Hispan Et Ind R" (Spain and the Indies, Rex).
The obverse and reverse legends together say "Charles IV by Grace of God King of Spain and the Indies".
The Mexico City mint mark is the M with the small O atop it.
The F and M are probably assayers initials, typical of Spanish colonial coinage.
The two pillars are the Pillars of Hercules which symbolize the Straits of Gibraltar.
The left ribbon says "PLUS" and the right ribbon says "ULTRA".
Together these say "more beyond".
The symbolism is stating that Spain lays claim to all lands west of the Straits of Gibralter and this symbolism dates to the earliest coinage struck in Spain for the New World in about 1505 and is used on much of the cob and milled coinage struck in the New World.
The shield shows the heraldic devices of lions (Leon) and Castles (Castile).
The Shield tells of a united Spain, made of many parts, much like the United States.
(Cited from: https://www.cointalk.com/threads/1790-charles-iv-1-2-reale.407108/)
On the obverse on its left side you can see "8 R" -- meaning 8 reals or 8 royals.
The back of that coin can be seen more clearly on the Spanish flag.
The two pillars on both sides are the Two Pillars of Hercules, which is what the Rock of Gibraltar and the Morrocco mountain is called at the interection of the Meditteranean and Atlantic.
Wrapped around the left pillar is PLVS or Plus, meaning "more."
Wrapped around the right pillar is VLTRA or Ultra, meaning "beyond.
Taken together, the words speak of the Spanish Empire at the gates of the Pillar of Hercules leading to MORE and BEYOND.
Even the wrapping of the scroll around the two pillars is the genesis of the Dollar sign, according to some sources.
The shield on the flag is different from the coin.
It still retains the Lion (Leon) and the Castle (Castile) representing to main regions of a united Spain. See more on the Sheild.
Below is One Real or One Royal. On the Reverse, you can see 1 R for one royal.
Mike Robinson's find in Frederick County Virginia.
His find is a 1 Real (pronounced REEE AL), meaning Royal, meaning 1/8 of a dollar. A piece of Eight, as in "8 reales" was a Spanish dollar which would buy you a buck as in buckskin.
Dollar Sign Origin
Earlier history of the symbol
It is still uncertain, however, how the dollar sign came to represent the Spanish American peso. There are currently several competing hypotheses:
The most widely accepted theory holds that the sign grew out of the Spanish and Spanish American scribal abbreviation "ps" for pesos. A study of late 18th- and early 19th-century manuscripts shows that the s gradually came to be written over the p, developing into a close equivalent to the "$" mark.[8][9][10][11][12] Oliver Pollock, a wealthy Irish trader and early supporter of the American Revolution, used the abbreviation "ps", sometimes run together in a way that almost exactly resembled the dollar sign, in a letter dated 1778.[6][13] There are documents showing the common use of the two-stroke version in Portugal already by 1775.[14]
Another hypothesis derives the sign from a depiction of the Pillars of Hercules, a classical symbol for two sides of the Strait of Gibraltar, with a ribbon wrapped around each pillar (or both pillars) in the form of an "S". This device is a support element of the Spanish coat of arms, and appeared on the most common real de ocho coins circulating at the time in the Americas and Europe; namely, those minted at the Potosí mint in Bolivia, which operated from 1573 to 1825.[15][10] Indeed, one of the names used for Spanish dollars in Qing Dynasty China was 雙柱; Shuāngzhù; 'double-pillar'.[16]
A variant of the above theory claims that the sign comes from the mark of the mint at Potosí, where a large portion of the Spanish Empire's silver was mined. A feature on these coins were the letters "P T S I" superimposed. The core of this monogram is a (single-stroked) "$" sign.[17]
Yet another hypothesis notes that the English word "dollar" for the Spanish piece of eight originally came (through Dutch daalder) from Joachimsthaler or thaler, a similar large German silver coin that was widely used in Europe. It is therefore conjectured that the dollar sign derived from a symbol consisting of a superimposing S and I or J that was used to denote the German silver coin. Such symbol appears in the 1686 edition of An Introduction to Merchants' Accounts by John Collins.[18] Alternatively, the symbol could have come from a snake and cross emblem on the thaler coins.[6]
.
Spanish Flag
The different parts of this flag tell you that Spain like the 50 states contains a number of separate regions unified to make Spain.
Catalan has tried to assert more autonomy like Scotland has towards England.
But why is Catalan not included in this coat of arms?
The Catalan flag, known as the "Senyera", is not featured on the Spanish coat of arms because it primarily represents the historical "Crown of Aragon", which included Catalonia but also encompassed other regions like Aragon, Valencia, and the Balearic Islands; therefore, the Spanish coat of arms reflects a broader Spanish identity rather than specifically representing individual regions like Catalonia.
King Charles III
See a story of the previous Spanish King Charles III
.
.
.
.
Comments