try getting "change" when you use gold as your tender.
Where did the expression "Pieces of eight" come from?
Here is my 2 bits...Based on history.
"To make change, the coin was cut up to resemble pieces of a pie. Two pieces, or "two bits," of the silver coin made up a quarter, which is why Americans still may refer to a quarter (of a dollar) as two bits."
That's where "Pieces" of eight came from.
Pieces of eight were Spanish silver coins (pesos) that circulated along with other hard currency in the American colonies. Since the settlements in the New World were all possessions of their mother countries (England, Spain, France, Portugal, and the Netherlands), they did not have monetary systems of their own. England forbade its American colonies to issue money. Colonists used whatever foreign currency they could get their hands on. Pieces of eight (from Spain), reals (from Spain and Portugal), and shillings (from England) were in circulation; the pieces of eight were most common. The Spanish silver coin was so named because it was worth eight reals and at one time had an eight stamped on it.
But bullets may be more valuable during any apocalypse.
Maybe an assault musket or two also...
Bat guano for black powder...
or a crossbow?
Bat guano's high nitrate content provided a key ingredient for the production of gunpowder, and by 1863 a shortage of munitions and other goods precipitated by the Union blockade, prompted the South to seek alternative means of securing various supplies.
Edited by Rogerdodger, 12 February 2024 - 09:42 PM.