8 Reales books

OriginalDan

Good evening, I'm mostly a US/Trade dollar guy but I'd like to read up on the coinage that mostly preceded that series - the 8 reales. I'd like to find a book or two (preferably in English) that outline the history of the coinage as well as the series including the mints, countries and availability of dates. Basically I'd like to educate myself on the series.

Anything good you'd recommend out there?

JohnnyCache

I too would enjoy expanding my numismatic library to include books on eight Reales and eight Escudos but thus far in my searches for published works I've come up with very little to show. It typically comes down to either generalized guide books which happen to cover the years that coinage was being produced or I get stories of shipwrecks and pirate treasure.

The better part of the knowledge I've accumulated had to be gleened off the internet, and well, we know how relaible that can be at times.
I'd be interested in knowing if you make any progress in your search.
I am somewhat surprised, given that I think this coinage seems to hold a reasonable amount of interest amongst world coin collectors, that there are not some really informative and well written/documented books readily available.

Here's to hoping someone on the boards can provide some useful info.


JC

TwoKopeiki

There are a few references available in English. The best I have found so far on 8 Reales that covers all Mints and rulers is the 1969 work in two volumes by Calbeto de Grau titled "Compendium de las Piezas de Ocho Reales." It's in both English and Spanish and provides background information as well as relative scarcity of individual year / mint / assayer / variety combination. I have found it the most useful general 8 Reales reference. It's also one of the more expensive ones. Right now AbeBooks lists a few sets with prices ranging $220 - $500.

If you read spanish, "El Duro" also contains quite a bit of information on the series.

"Numismatic History of Mexico" talks about coin production at Mexico City and other Mexico Provisional mints. It's also a pretty cheap book, in my opinion, for the amount of information (albeit dated when it comes to pricing) contained within.

In fact, when it comes to pricing - there isn't a good reference out right now that would be considered reliable. Krause is the closest one in published form. Auction archives from US and Spain is a good way to monitor price trends.

Here's a short list taken from a previous post:
Gilboy's "Columnarios" for the Pillar type Spanish American coins
Calbeto's "Compendium VIII Reales" Two volumes covers all mints
Hubbard and O'Harrow's "Hooknecks" - covers all die varieties of the Hookneck (Profile Eagle) Mexican 1823-1825.
Dunigan and Parker's "Resplandores" covers every major variety of Cap and Ray 8R from Mexico 1400 varieties 1823-1897
"Numismatica Espanol", 1998, by Calico & Trigo - useful, but in Spanish only
Cayon's "Las Monedas Espanolas" - covers all denominations, not only 8R - Spanish only
Buttrey and Hubbard's "a guide book of Mexican Coin 1822 to date." - includes minors, not only 8R
Hubbard's "Numismatic History of Mexico" - lots of info on individual mints including some war of independence information.

Cheers,

Roman.

P.S. if you have any specific questions, feel free to PM me.

TwoKopeiki

Forgot that as non-World collectors, you guys are probably not familiar with Krause's "Standard Catalog of World Coins". It's a price guide encompassing all countries and denominations and the source of all those KM# numbers you see associated with world coins.

OriginalDan

Correct, I was not aware of Krause's catalog. That should prove a helpful starting point.

DDR

Warning: Resurrecting an old thread here, but I have basically the same question as @OriginalDan

The books outlined above by @Twokopeki are somewhat difficult to find and I don't read Spanish. Are there any others that have come out in the past decade that a new collector to the series should read? I found one book: "Eight Reales and Pesos of the New World," by Carlos Elizondo. Is that worth picking up?

Boosibri

@DDR said:
Warning: Resurrecting an old thread here, but I have basically the same question as @OriginalDan

The books outlined above by @Twokopeki are somewhat difficult to find and I don't read Spanish. Are there any others that have come out in the past decade that a new collector to the series should read? I found one book: "Eight Reales and Pesos of the New World," by Carlos Elizondo. Is that worth picking up?

Brad Yonaka came out with a series of books covering the Pillar Coinage of all of the mints. One just released covering Mexico, another with all of the other mints. He also published a book in Portrait Coinage of Mexico. All are great!

I have a spare copy of Calberto noted above if you need it.

Elizondo and others are a bit old but still useful.

Numismatics espanola is important and helpful even if you don’t read Spanish. There is a digital copy floating around for free. Check Aureo & Calicos website.

DDR

Thanks, Boosibri!

bidask

https://forums.collectors.com/discussion/1059485/wonderful-research-paper-on-foreign-silver-coins-that-circulated-in-china