French anyone?
Reid Goldsborough
dollar reads:
SILVER PILLAR DOLLAR (PIECE OF EIGHT)/PIASTRE AUX COLONNES D'HERCULE
(PESO)."
Anybody know the correct translation of PIASTRE AUX COLONNES D'HERCULE
(PESO)?
From a Google search, it seems the piaster was the major unit of
currency of French Indochina (present-day Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos)
and Ottoman Turkey.
From Google Translate, it seems COLONNES D'HERCULE means Pillars of
Hercules, which were symbolized on the other side of the coin.
But I'm not sure of the entire translation of the phrase.
Bob
wrote:
Reid, the literal translation would be "piastre (or dollar) of the
Pillars of Hercules" (the entrance to the Mediterranean), but a free
translation would be simply "pillar dollar."
"Piastre du Commerce" is French for "trade dollar." This is the coin
that cirulated in the French colonies in Indochina in the 19th and
20th centuries. I believe that "piastre" itself is related to "peso,"
another name for a dollar coin.
Bob Leonard
Reid Goldsborough
>
> > Anybody know the correct translation of PIASTRE AUX COLONNES D'HERCULE
> > (PESO)?
>
> > From a Google search, it seems the piaster was the major unit of
> > currency of French Indochina (present-day Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos)
> > and Ottoman Turkey.
>
> > From Google Translate, it seems COLONNES D'HERCULE means Pillars of
> > Hercules, which were symbolized on the other side of the coin.
>
> > But I'm not sure of the entire translation of the phrase.
>
> Reid, the literal translation would be "piastre (or dollar) of the
> Pillars of Hercules" (the entrance to the Mediterranean), but a free
> translation would be simply "pillar dollar."
>
> "Piastre du Commerce" is French for "trade dollar." This is the coin
> that cirulated in the French colonies in Indochina in the 19th and
> 20th centuries. I believe that "piastre" itself is related to "peso,"
> another name for a dollar coin.
Good stuff. This makes sense.
Here's another question, no doubt much more difficult. I'd like to
identify the source and date of this medal commemorating the pillar
dollar. I don't have a pic yet -- the seller's pic was unfocused and
useless. The piece is smaller than a pillar dollar and copies on the
obverse a 1732 pillar dollar from Mexico City. The reverse is just the
legend, which again is SILVER PILLAR DOLLAR (PIECE OF EIGHT)/PIASTRE
AUX COLONNES D'HERCULE (PESO).
The use of French would indicate it may have been made in France to
pay tribute to the pillar dollar circulating in French Indochina.
Bob
wrote:
>
> - Show quoted text -
While I am not familiar with this medal, I would think that Canada
would be far more likely than France. What other country has English
and French as official languages? The pillar dollar certainly
circulated in Canada; I can't find this clearly spelled out in the
Canadian coin catalogs, but in Adam Shortt, Documents Relating to
Currency, Exchange and Finance in Nova Scotia 1675-1758 (Ottawa,
1933), I find a letter from Hugh Davidson to Lord Viscount Duplin
written in Boston, 16 June 1750. In it, Mr. Davidson writes "...The
Governor immediately applied...with directions to send without loss of
time, 10,000 Dollars to Halifax...I sent back the Sloop I came in the
Thursday after my arrival with Dollars (6000) & tents which were
greatly wanted..." He paid 4 shillings 6 pence per Spanish dollar,
and of course these were pillar dollars, since the bust type had not
been introduced by 1750. Besides this letter, the index entry for
dollars is 1-1/2 inches long--and this collection of documents just
covers Nova Scotia!
Bob Leonard