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In the late 1700s Spain claimed control of nearly a million square miles of the North American territories, from Mississippi to the Rockies. The Louisiana Territory as it became know had a sparkling jewel in its crown; the port of New Orleans, a critical shipping gateway to and from the New World. The economy was failing, spawning devalued paper currency and counterfeit bills, and in a bid for stability, King Carolus III of Spain, ordered the near worthless paper currency to be redeemed with freshly minted silver coinage from the Mexican Mint.
Bound for New Orleans, loaded with a vast treasure of silver coinage, El Cazador, captained by Gabriel de Campos set sail in 11 January 1784. Alas, the great Man o' War never reached its destination, disappearing without trace in June 1784. The currency situation become desperate but despite immediately despatching more silver to the territory, it was never enough to redeem and stabilise the Spanish currency of Louisiana back to France and only three years later in 1803, Napoleon sold it all to America for three cents an acre. The historic silver cargo was recovered from the wreck of El Cazador as recently as 1993.
Coinage of several denominations including a half-reale, 1 Reale, 2 Reales and 4 Reales, were discovered, but by far the greatest in size and number was the 8-Reale. Known as a 'Piece of Eight', since it was often cut into halves, quarters and eighths, the Spanish 8-Reale was used throughout Europe and the Americas and is widely recognised as the forerunner of many existing currencies including the US silver dollar.