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A doubloon. Pirates also called them "pieces of eight".

MoreThe term "piece of eight" was used by many people, not just pirates. It was applied to the "reale" coin that was about the size of an old US silver dollar, around 40 mm in diameter. There were few low-denomination coins at that time so people made change by cutting reales in half, then in quarters, and finally in eighths, hence the term "piece of eight".

Reales circulated in the British colonies as well, where the 1/8-reale pieces were commonly known as "bits" When the US developed its own coinage system after the Revolution the quarter-dollar was minted in order to maintain compatibility with the quarter-reale pieces that were still commonly used, which explains

(a) why we have 25¢ coins instead of 20¢ coins like many other countries and

(b) why quarters are still sometimes called "two bits"

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12y ago

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