History of the Real de a Ocho
Real de a Ocho
The Real de a Ocho, the World's first Reserve Currency
The REAL8 is inspired by the Real de a Ocho, a silver coin first minted in Europe in 1497, which became the world’s first Reserve Currency, and from which the universal dollar symbol ($) originates. The Real de a Ocho was the first legal tender coin to circulate in the United States of America
The coin was also adopted, with various modifications, in regions as far apart as Spain and Japan, and England and Australia. This phenomenon of wide acceptance and geographic adaptation made it the first truly global currency, a symbol of the economic interconnection that was beginning to emerge in the world. The Real de a Ocho’s ability to integrate into diverse economic systems, and its universal acceptance, reflect its robustness and the confidence it inspired among governments and merchants of different cultures.
The Real de a Ocho began to be minted by the Spanish Empire after the monetary reform of the Reyes Católicos (Pragmática de Medina del Campo de 1497) with a weight of 27.468 grams and a purity of 0.93055%, which contained 25.560 grams of pure silver.
The coins had a value of eight reales (8 reales and 272 maravedís. 1 Real de a Ocho = 1 duro. 2 Reales de a Ocho = 1 escudo). The Real de a Ocho uses a duodecimal base adjusted to the weight standard of the Colonial Mark of 233.856 grams. Together with the ounce, it was part of the 16th century bimetallic system of the Spanish Monarchy, introduced by Charles I and spread globally by Philip II in all his domains.
The Real de a Ocho became a point of reference in world trade for more than 3 centuries, and in turn served as the basis for the coins circulating in other nations at the time. As an international currency, it financed the economic recovery of Western Europe, favoring the introduction of Mercantilism during the 16th century. The influence of the Real de a Ocho was so widespread that it is estimated that 32% of the world’s population today lives in countries with currencies named after, or originally created based on, the model of that single currency.
The currencies of the countries that became independent in the American continent, the Chinese Yuan, the Japanese Yen, and many others around the world, were initially based on the Real de a Ocho. This global acceptance was the origin of the symbol “$” that was used in accounting books around the world, imitating in a simplified way the columns and bands that are observed in the original Real de a Ocho coin.
Millions of Reales de un Ocho were minted over several centuries, which were widely used well into the 19th century. The coins were often stamped with foreign characters, so that they appeared to be legal tender in many countries around the world, as can be seen in the samples below:
Worthy of special mention are the United States banknotes that used the Real de a Ocho as a unit of value:
