What are pieces of eight?

Search: pieces of eight

Why: Yesterday, so utterly hungover from 2 consecutive 6-in-the-morning bedtime "nights" and barely able to breathe or speak (let alone stand up [let alone actually walk]), I did that thing where I brought a regular bedroom pillow into the living room, hid under a blanket, and watched Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End because I had never seen it and also because, with commercials, it has a 3.5-hour running time. There's a whole deal with "pieces of eight," and also, there's a store outside the exit of the ride called Pieces of Eight.

Answer: They're old Spanish money! Silver coins were "Reales" and gold coins were "Escudos." The "Pieces of Eight" were the largest silver coins (1 oz.) worth 8 reales. I don't know why it was 8; maybe they didn't use the base 10 system.

These coins were also used in the American Colonies. Rather than calling them "pieces of eight," people usually just referred to them as peso, Spanish dollars, or - in the English-speaking colonies - just dollars. They were legal tender in the US until 1857.

You've also heard of "doubloons." These were gold, not silver, because Doblón means, doy, "double." There is some debate about how much a doubloon was actually worth. The theory that makes the most sense is that these were worth 8 escudos. I mean, obviously. Or "doubloon" was just slang for all the gold coins.

They were melted, poured, and forged or stamped by hand:

If the events of the Pirates movies happened around the 1740s-50s, this is what the coins would have looked like:

Obverse
VTRAQVE VNUM M[EXICANUS] 1739
"Both (are) one, Mexico [City Mint], 1739"
Displays two hemispheres of a world map, crowned between the Pillars of Hercules adorned with the PLVS VLTR[A] motto.

Reverse
PHILIP[PUS] V D[EI] G[RATIA] HISPAN[IARUM] ET IND[IARUM] REX
"Philip V, by the Grace of God, King of the Spains and the Indies"
Displays the arms of Castile and León with Granada in base and an inescutcheon of Anjou.

And an 8!

Source: Pirate Money, Wikipedia

The More You Know: Orlando Bloom and Keikei Knightley are not in the new Pirates movie that you recently ignored. Did you know that? I didn't. The reason is because their story ends after the credits of Pirates 3, which frankly, I find a little rude. In case you missed it (and their whole long boring drama), feast your eyes. Feast them! This is "ten years later":