Don Hillger asked on 2002-08-26: >Mark, > >I'm trying to get an answer for you. In the meantime, I'd ask that >person for proof of Spain's first 100 centivios dollar. > >I'm hoping my friend Joe Reid knows the answer. > >Don > >-----Original Message----- >From: Mark Bej, M.D. [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] >Sent: Thursday, 2002 August 22 06:45 >To: Hillger, Don >Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >Subject: Dr. Hillger -- > > >Dr. Hillger -- >on an internet group where I proffered that the US was the first to >have a decimal unit system (specifically currency), someone else >replied that we were preceded in this by Spain, when they defined >the spanish dollar to have 100 centivos.Your web site cites 1786 >for the US. Do you know when Spain went decimal? >-- >M. Bej >[EMAIL PROTECTED] >
The Encyclopaedia Britannica 11th Edition says: "..the leading countries of the world (Great Britain and India are the chief exceptions) have adopted decimal coinage. The United States led the way (1786 and 1792) with the dollar as the unit." My memory is that the Mexican silver dollar was commonly cut into 8 pieces, Hence "pieces of eight" and the slang expression of "two bits' for 25 cents. The only information that I could find in the Encyclopaedia Britannica was that "The coinage system of France came into force on the 6th of May 1799. It was extended to the countries forming the Latin union in 1865; it has been adopted by Greece, Rumania, Servia and Spain.....The Spanish coinaqe was assimilated to that of the Latin union in 1871. Spain, differing from the other countries of the group, coins a 25 peseta piece." -- Joseph B. Reid 17 Glebe Road West Toronto M5P 1C8 Tel. 416 486-6071
