Ocho Reales

Two "ocho reales" Mexican coins. The top one from1886 and the bottom from 1836. This was THE coin in New Mexico, in the the west as a whole and even the western part of the United States for the better part of the early and mid 1800's.

The term "real or reales" hung around a lot longer than the coin really. In my youth the term ocho reales meant one American dollar, quatro reales was a 50 cent piece and dos reales was a quarter. It was understood all over the place by Spanish speaking New Mexicans. Since there was no 12 and 1/2 cent piece there were no uno real coin. Dos, quatro and ocho reales was it.  Mostly applied to coin.... as compared to the greenback which was called a peso.

The English term two bits, four bits, six bits a dollar referred to the Mexican Ocho real coin.

There were no Mexican dos or quatro real coins, it is my understanding they cut the ocho real coin into 8 pieces. Thus the 2 bit English term.

Money spoke Spanish back then, especially in the frontier. And New Mexico seems like the eternal frontier.