Spanish dollar

From SgWiki

The Spanish dollar or peso (literally, "weight") is a silver coin that was minted in the Spanish Empire after a Spanish currency reform in 1497.
The peso had a nominal value of eight reales ("royals"). The coins were often physically cut into eight "bits," or sometimes four quarters, to make smaller change. This is the origin of the colloquial name "pieces of eight" for the coin, and of "quarter" and "two bits" for twenty-five cents in the United States.
It was legal tender in the United States until an Act of the United States Congress discontinued the practice in 1857. Through widespread use in Europe the Americas and the Far East, it became the first world currency by the late 18th century. Many existing currencies, such as the Canadian dollar, United States dollar and the Chinese yuan, as well as currencies in Latin America and the Philippines are based on the Spanish dollar.