1820 Pillar Dollar struck in Bolivia

Description

This auction is for an 1820 Spanish milled dollar or 8 reales, also known as a pillar dollar or a "piece of eight."  This type of coin and its fractional parts (one-half, one, two, and four reales) were the principal coins of the American colonists and were the forerunners of our own silver dollar and its fractional divisions.  In fact, Thomas Jefferson even recommended to the Continental Congress on September 2, 1776, that the new country adopt the silver Spanish milled dollar as its monetary until of value.  During the early years of the U.S. Mint, all U.S. silver coins were often in short supply, so the Spanish silver dollars remained legal tender in the United States until 1857.  Their large size and high .903 fine silver content made them widely accepted everywhere.  In fact, this type of coin is often referred to as "America's first silver dollar."  And the pillars with ribbons around them on the reverse were the inspiration for the familiar U.S. dollar sign.  This particular coin was struck in Bolivia and was cleaned at some time in the past.  At a starting price of , this coin is a great value for a beginning collector or for a dealer to put into inventory.
After over 45 years of buying U.S. coin collections that often also contained a number of foreign coins, we are liquidating an accumulation of over 600,000 world coins.  Because we are older and downsizing and want to get rid of all these coins, we are not accepting any returns.  Will combine shipping.   If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us.  Thanks for looking.