"Pieces of Eight and Doubloons are two common terms thrown around quite liberally in the old Pirate movies. Other coins such as "Reales" and "Escudos" are rarely mentioned. So what exactly are these coins?
During the Golden Age of Piracy (and well into the 19th Century) A Piece of Eight was a Spanish or Spanish American coin roughly that was roughly equivalent to today's dollar coin. however, However unlike today's American dollar which is worth 100 pennies, the Piece of Eight was worth, you guessed it, eight of Spain's small common denomination, the Reale (sometimes spelled "real").

As such the Piece of Eight was clearly marked with the number "8". It may sound strange to some people to have 1/8 pieces but at one time the U.S. Dollar also was divided into eight pieces or bits. Remember the nursery rhyme "two bits, four bits, six bits, a dollar"? Mexico continued to use a monetary system similar to the old Spanish Piece of Eight well into the 19th Century.


It sounds strange to use a phrase such as "piece of" to describe a coin but a quick look at the Oxford English Dictionary will make it obvious that this was common practice in the English of time. Today, we would call it an "Eight Real Piece or Coin" similar to a "$20 Gold Piece" or "Ten Mark Piece" Just about any reale might be referred incorrectly as a "Piece of Eight" but all where clearly minted as 1, 2, 4, and 8 reale pieces. Sometimes, the coins would be cut up or cut in half. so if you cut an 8 reale coin in half the two halves would each be worth four reales. Because the coins were made of pure silver, cutting them into pieces did little to decrease their value.

So we now know that the Piece of Eight was a standard dollar in Old Spain. Where does that leave the Doubloon and what is this Escudo that I'm talking about? Well the Escudo was a coin equivalent to two Pieces of Eight. Escudos also came in 1, 2, 4, and 8 Escudos pieces. A Doubloon was equal to eight Escudos or sixteen Eight Reale coins..

The Piece of Eight was silver coin and the Doubloon is a "gold piece".

The Spanish money would've been easy to spend in the many islands of The Caribbean and becAUse it was made of gold or silver, its equiviaent worth was easily transferable to coins of the English Empire."


http://www.answers.com/topic/pieces-of-eight