Quote:
Originally Posted by Steve Jackson
Fun fact: A "piece of eight" was a real coin. Silver, not gold. It was designed to be broken into eight pieces to make change. Why eight? I do not know.
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Most likely eight was chosen because 8 is a power of 2. The whole coin was
a Spanish milled dollar, a typical round coin. The coin could be broken in half, and each half broken in half again, and each quarter in half again. And it looks just like your half, quarter, and eighth on a typical pie chart. each eighth was a bit; there are 8 bits to a dollar. This is the origin of the famous "shave & a haircut: two bits!" song. The cost was a quarter, or two 1/8 pices of 8 (two bits)!
EDIT: This year, the Canadian Mint created their own "answer" to the piece of eight. It's called the Maple Flex Bar, and despite its tasty-sounding name, isn't edible. It's a 2-0z silver bar that can be broken up into 19 pieces and bartered with for trade. The smallest divisions are 1/20th Oz. Here's a picture of one.
https://media.discordapp.net/attachm...298&height=241