Half Reales

[Vermonter]

Yesterday I added another half real to my collection of summer finds from a nearby cabin site and field. That makes 3. Here's a pic of them together. 1787, 1775, and 1783, all Mexico mint. Two with an FM assayer mark, the other FF. I hardly cleaned these at all, they were that shiny. I've pounded the area all summer long. I thought I was done. Apparently not! The site has produced period buttons, but the only other coins were 1803 draped bust cents. Bit of a spread in years. Any guess how much a half real was worth in say 1800 relative to a state copper or a US large cent?

 

[david680]

Not only 3 half reales, but those are 3 pretty nice ones. Keep pounding it, it ain't done, just a longer time between old coin finds.

 

[Evolution]

A half real would be 1/16 of a dollar. An 8 reale was equivalent to a dollar. Sweet Spanish silver. Nice!

 

[tomhighland]

Congratulations on the Mexican mint silver! Excellent finds. Keep it up.

 

[bonepicker]

Nice looking Spanish half reals.
I have only dug a couple and yours look alot better than mine.
Mine were 1801-1803 i think, and dug in the same area that several 1830-1850 US silver half dimes came out of.
The half reals were almost slick. I can only speculate that the Spanish coins were still used as currency during the time the later US coins were being used, and this is the reason mine were so worn, and why the date ranges on the US and Spanish coins were so far apart. Especially since no one was supposed to be inhabiting the area i found mine in until the late 1830's
I have also often wondered what a 1/2 real or half dime value would be in the early 1800s.
Would a 1/2R purchase a gallon of oil, beer, or milk. Or perhaps a 1/4 goat, a couple yard-birds, a bushel of corn, or some other necessity that would be a common staple of that era..

 

[trapperart]

Congrats on the old silver

 

[Vermonter]

I didn't realize Spanish silver circulated as long as it did (even as late as the 1850's), and that the 8 real "dollar" was officially pegged to the dollar in 1785. Before US coinage though, there were British coppers (farthings and halfpennies) in circulation and later state coppers for awhile. How many real were those worth?

Anyway, for sure, a lost half real in 1800 was some real money, 6.25 draped bust large cents to be exact! It's always debatable what a cent bought back then. It's tough to use straight inflation going that far back. Different times. Labor was cheaper and food was more expensive relatively. That said, I was always told a loaf of bread cost about 1 cent in 1800, and a man made a little under 1 dollar a day.

 

[against the wind]

Sweet Spanish Silver,
Congratulations

 

[UnderMiner]

Nice, some of our Founding Fathers likely handled these coins for brief moments during common everyday trade

 

[Mackaydon]

bonepicker,
You can use this page to determine the current value of a dollar from any year since 1774.
https://www.measuringworth.com/uscompare/
Don........

 

[pepperdawg]

Beautiful - Way to represent the 802!!!!!