Last weekend, Stuart and I were commissioned to destroy the old hut which stood at the bottom of the garden at Auchter House. The hut was lined with weld-mesh and, after trying to pull out the staples, found this too difficult. Brute force and ignorance was called for, so, with 14lb hammer [...]
Following on from the bit about the Spanish Dollar, it occurred to me that the US still produces dollar coins.
We have here both a Dollar and a Half Dollar dated 1978 and 1994, with the eagle and the motto of the USA stating “e pluribus unum” which translates as “one [...]
The ‘Piece of Eight’ was a Spanish silver coin worth eight reales and known as the Spanish Dollar. It was, in fact, legal tender in USA until 1857. It was the first world currency and was widely traded.
The coins were often broken into eight ‘bits’ or four ‘quarters’ to make smaller change. [...]