By Patrick Heller
Most of the first colonists in what is now the United States came from England. They adopted many English customs and laws which have continued to the present day. But, have you ever wondered why the American money system is based on the decimal system of dollars and cents rather than the on the British pounds, shillings, and pence?
The dollar is derived from the term thaler
Category Archives: Spanish Colonial 8 Reales
Eight amazing pieces of silver
By Mark Benvenuto
Throughout the entire collector community, it’s fair to say we all like hefty silver coins. It appears to be part of virtually every collector’s passion, and that desire can burn pretty brightly in many of us. Whether it is classic silver dollars or the big silver of foreign countries, these coins are those that are usually in the spotlight and always in collectors’ hearts
Affordable colonial era foreign coins
18th-century colonial America (and even into the 19th-century) saw a wide variety of coins in circulation to satisfy monetary demand. Many of these early American and American-related coinage are very rare and highly demanded by colonial coin specialists (such as the crudely struck 1652 New England coinage)