There’s a new coin coming worth ten euros but... it’s for collectors rather than normal circulation as there will only be 4,000 of them minted.

The Fábrica Nacional de Moneda y Timbre (FNMT) presented this new coin to mark the 500th anniversary of the Consejo de Estado (the supreme advisory council for the Spanish Government). 

The Council of State came into being in 1526 during the rein of Carlos I to finally become the advisory council for the Government as established in the Spanish Constitution of 1977.

The coin is the equivalent of the historic Spanish ‘piece of eight,’ which was the defacto world currency from the 16th to the 18th Century. 

This coin which was worth eight, silver reales and was often sliced up into eight equal  pieces for convenience during minor transations and in all your pirate films it was the silver pieces of eight and the gold doubloons (worth four pieces of eight) that pirates sailed the seven seas in search of.

In fact, the Spanish dollar or ‘piece of eight’ was used  in British America and later became the model for the US dollar after adoption in 1792. 

So what is this new coin made of? Well, it’s not all silver like the original obviously but it contains 925 thousandths silver, commonly known as sterling silver, which is an alloy composed of 92.5% pure silver and 7.5% other metal, usually copper.  The rest of the coin, which weighs 27 grammes is pure copper.

(News: Spain)

Keywords: 10-Euro Coin, Council of State, 500th Anniversary, Pieces of Eight, Doubloons

news, spain, 10-Euro Coin, Council of State, 500th Anniversary, Pieces of Eight, Doubloons