This month is the Garden Of Friendship’s eighth Birthday and in honour of this auspicious occasion I have decided to dedicated this months article to DeDe and also to all the rest of my wonderful friends here at the Garden Of Friendship. When I joined almost three years ago I had no idea what I was in for or how much you would all mean to me. DeDe has been the backbone and the glue of this group and for that should be applauded. If she is the glue the rest of you leaders and members are the bricks and other building materials. So Happy Birthday to all and here is to many more! Now I raise my glass of Champagne and toast everyone and wish all of you many a happy returns! This year the Birthday theme is Pieces Of Eight so below is the history of what Pieces Of Eight are and since this is sort of reminds me of a Pirate Theme I have given you some ideas for having a Pirate Birthday Theme.


Pieces Of Eight


During the Golden Age of Piracy and well into the 19th Century A Piece of Eight was a Spanish or Spanish American coin that was roughly equivalent to today's Dollar coin. However, unlike today's American Dollar which is worth 100 Pennies, the Piece Of Eight was worth eight of Spain's smallest common demonination, The Reale sometimes spelled Real. As such the Piece Of Eight was clearly marked with the number eight. 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 a 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 that time. Today, we would call it an Eight Real Piece or Coin similar to a Twenty Dollar gold piece or Ten Mark piece. Just about any Reale might be referred incorrectly as a Piece Of Eight, but all were clearly minted as One, Two, Four and Eight 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. And because the coins were made of pure silver, cutting them into pieces did little to decrease their value. So we now know that the Pieces Of Eight was a standard Dollar in Old Spain.