Category Archives: Antiques

by

H. Hughes & Son “Officer-of-the-Watch” Telescope (Ca. 1920).

After selling one of my telescopes last year at an antiques fair (and making a very healthy profit on it, if I do say so myself!), I was able to splurge a bit on another ‘scope – of a particular style which I have, until now, not had the privilege of adding to my collection.

I’ve seen a number of these telescopes over the years, but they were all in absolutely terrible condition. Most of them were covered with dents, scratches, loose or broken lenses…and outrageous price-tags! I don’t know about you, but $650 for a telescope with no glass inside it sounds like a very steep price to pay for what is basically a very nice, polished metal tube covered in leather.

I got this particular ‘scope from my local flea-market and after checking it all over for flaws and damage, decided that it was worth the expense to buy it. It had one or two minor faults, all relating to the leather sheathing, but nothing that some restoration (eventually…if it ever needs it) couldn’t rectify. So, for much less than the nearly $700 that the other telescopes were going for, I decided to buy it.

What is an ‘Officer of the Watch’ Telescope?

With its long, thin profile and single draw-tube, sliding glare-shield and smooth, leather cladding, this telescope is quite different from a lot of the others that you’ll find out ‘in the wild’ as it were. Most antique telescopes that you’ll find out and about are multi-tube telescopes without any type of sliding glare-shield, and they’re usually much smaller, with a closed length of anywhere from four to six to eight inches; some slightly larger ones might be about twelve inches, but not many will be longer than that.

Telescope with the draw-tube (back) and the glare-shield (front) extended.

By comparison, an officer-of-the-watch telescope typically measures 18 inches when closed up, stretching out to about two feet when fully extended. Most other telescopes can double or triple their lengths easily when they’re extended, while this particular model does not. Exactly why it was designed this way will be explained later on.

The Maker’s details.

These telescopes are called Officer-of-the-watch/officer-on-watch (‘OOW’) telescopes because they were usually purchased by officers or captains serving in the navy or the merchant marine for use on the ship’s bridge. Such telescopes were either the private property of the officers who carried them, or else were the property of the ship, and were kept on the bridge at all times for use by the crew. Their purpose was to provide a vision-aid close to hand for officers on the bridge in the event of an emergency.

Why are they shaped like they are?

A closeup of the glare-shield.

As I said earlier, Officer-of-the-Watch telescopes are long and narrow, with single draw-tubes and sliding glare-shields over their objective lenses. Their unique shape is due to the constraints of their working environments. Since these telescopes were usually kept (and used in) the bridge of a ship at sea, they had to be compact. A shorter, two-foot telescope was lighter, easier to carry and easier to use in the confined space of a ship’s wheelhouse, compared to a more conventional naval telescope (some of which could be three or even four feet long!). Try swinging that around inside a wheelhouse without cracking the helmsman in the head! He won’t thank you for it!

How Old are these Telescopes?

Officer-of-the-watch telescopes date to the early 20th century and appear to have been made exclusively in Britain. They were manufactured starting ca. 1900 up to the middle of the century. and were originally manufactured for the Royal Navy, but their use drifted into regular merchant-marine use as well due to their practicality of design.

So, what is an Officer of the Watch?

In the ship’s crew, an officer of the watch (or ‘officer on watch’) is the officer in charge of watchkeeping. Every officer on the ship, generally from the captain down to the lowest-ranking officer, covers watchkeeping in shifts. Traditionally, a watch was four hours long. During that four-hour shift, an officer stood watch on the bridge. Here, he could oversee the ship’s navigation, the weather, the speed and direction of travel, and could respond swiftly to emergencies. The officer of the watch had to be good at navigation, reading the weather, and at assessing dangerous situations such as storms, reefs, rocks and other hazards. In the absence of the captain (who might be sleeping, working, having dinner or be otherwise engaged), the officer of the watch was in charge of the ship’s immediate handling and navigation.

The “HUSUN” trademark on the glare-shield, comprised of the ocean and the rising sun

Typically, the officer of the watch was joined by at least two other sailors – a forward lookout or two, and a junior seaman known as a quartermaster, whose job was usually that of controlling the ship’s direction by manning the helm or the ship’s wheel. Officer-of-the-Watch telescopes were usually mounted on the wheelhouse walls, secured in place by brackets or rings to stop them rolling or sliding around.

In the event of something posing a hazard or threat to the ship (such as an oncoming storm, a coastline, rocks, a lighthouse or other ships), the officer of the watch could use the telescope provided (or one which he himself had purchased) to assess the situation ahead.

The bridge of the RMS Queen Mary. The semicircular devices on pedestals are the ship’s engine-order telegraphs

Since it could be dangerous to leave the wheelhouse during rough or stormy weather, a slimmer, more compact telescope which could be used easily indoors was preferable to the much longer, thicker, and heavier telescopes usually used at sea. Once the hazard had been identified, the ship could take appropriate action, either changing course, or else ordering the ship to stop or slow down, usually done by operating the engine-order telegraphs on the bridge, to send or ‘ring’ orders down to the engine-room below (each telegraph was equipped with a bell that dinged with each movement of the telegraph-arm so that the engineer could hear the change in orders from the bridge, over the drone of the engines).

What Features do these Telescopes Have?

To begin with, one of the most noticeable features of these telescopes is how thin they are. Typically not more than about three inches wide (if that!). A useful feature, since it would make the telescope easy to grip and hold – even if it’s winter on the Atlantic, and you’re wearing gloves to stop frostbite, but you need to spot an iceberg right ahead!

Another useful feature is the leather, non-slip cladding on the barrel. This was partially done for style purposes, but it also makes the telescope easier to grip with wet, cold hands in an emergency.

The third most noticeable feature that you’ll find on every officer of the watch telescope is the sliding shield at the front. Variously called ‘dew shields’ and ‘glare shields’, their purpose was to keep rain, seawater, spray and sunlight off the main lens (known as the ‘objective lens’). By sliding the shield out ahead of the lens, it prevented the sun’s rays from reflecting off the glass and potentially blinding the user, and it also kept the glass clear of raindrops or sea-spray in heavy weather, and was a popular feature on maritime telescopes.

Are These Types of Telescopes Common?

They are fairly common, yes. I’ve seen about four or five before I eventually bought this one. Most of them were in terrible, unusable condition due to their age and the lives they led, but you can find working examples for not too much money, if you’re patient. They’re typically made of brass (which may or may not be nickel-plated. Mine is plated) and are typically 18 inches long, extending out to about 24 inches in open length. Living in Australia, a country which until the late 20th century was accessible only by ship, finding maritime antiques isn’t that difficult. Barometers, ship’s clocks, telescopes, binoculars and sextants are pretty common here.

If you’re thinking of buying an antique telescope, then you need to check for things like dents, cracks, scratches and warpage. Damaged lenses can be hard to replace, and so should be avoided. Dents on the barrel (but even moreso on the draw-tubes) should be avoided as much as possible. Dents will misshape the profile of the tube and make it harder to draw in and out of the telescope. Dents on the draw-tubes will cause the telescope to jam.

If you have the right tools and enough patience, you can press and roll out (or at least reduce) stubborn dents, but you should be careful not to warp the shape of the tube. I was able to use a heavy, wooden rolling pin to roll out the dent inside the glare-shield on one of my favourite telescopes with great success. It wasn’t entirely eliminated, but it was reduced significantly – enough that it was no longer causing the shield to jam every time I opened or closed it.

The eyepiece shutter (closed) on the end of the telescope.

You should check that the sliding eyepiece shutter over the eyepiece lens is in good condition. If loose, they can be tightened by screwing them back into place. If they’re too tight, loosen the screw slightly. If the screw works itself loose repeatedly after tightening, every time you open and close the shutter, then a DROP of oil on the shutter will provide enough lubrication to allow the shutter to slide open and shut, without the friction that would also loosen the screw.

Simply tighten the screw as much as possible, apply a dab of oil and work it in. I’ve had to do that with a couple of telescopes in the past and provided the oil doesn’t dry out completely (unlikely), then it’s a very effective little fix.

Last but not least, you should check the telescope for its lens cap. Not all telescopes were designed to have lens-caps, but most did. This one does not have a cap over the objective lens, and never did. Instead it has a leather hood that drops over it, but most telescopes are meant to have them, to protect the objective lens from dust, water and damage. That said, it’s rather common to buy antique telescopes without their lens-caps included.

Anyway, that wraps up my posting about my rather different and interesting addition to my collection. For more information about antique telescopes, I can strongly recommend the blog of Nicholas Denbow, at The Telescope Collector. His posts are both entertaining, informative and fun to read!

 
by

A Fantasy Fulfilled – Acquiring Quizzers!

If you’re like me, and have had to grow up with appalling eyesight, then you’ll know that you can never have too many magnifying glasses. Ever since the day I started highschool, I’ve always wanted a pocket magnifying glass. Something which I could carry around with me and use whenever I needed to read small text, or magnify something which I couldn’t see clearly.

These days, there’s all kinds of magnifiers available. They come with lights, folding lenses and protective cases, they’re downloadable apps on your phone which you can customise to your needs, they have sensors and zoom-functions and all the rest of it.

And almost all of them are made of some cheap plastic stuff, usually in garish colours and god-awful patterns, and with weird, whacky designs that make them look more like toys than anything else. And this is the main reason why I have never bought one.

Instead, for many years, I held out, hoping to find something a little nicer, a little more refined and elegant, something useful that didn’t look like just another mass-produced vision-aid. Deciding to take a page from the book of history, I started hunting for a quizzing-glass.

What’s a Quizzing Glass?

“A what?”, I hear you say.

A quizzing-glass, I repeat, a quizzing-glass.

Alright…and what is a ‘quizzing-glass’?

I am so glad you asked, because this post is going to be all about them!

My sterling silver quizzing-glass, complete with silver albert-chain.

First, a bit of background – struggling with a heady mix of myopia and astigmatism (the eyes’ inability to both focus, and stabilise an image) – my eyesight has always been awful. Don’t get me wrong, I can see well enough to do just about anything – with enough time, patience and swearing, I can thread a needle if I really have to – but because of my conflicting vision-conditions, I’ve always suffered from terrible nearsightedness – hence the need for a decent magnifying glass.

To this end, I’d spent a long time – at least 10 years – searching for a decent quizzing-glass to use as a magnifier. Unfortunately, quizzing-glasses are both rare, and expensive. Despite visiting countless fairs, shops, and dealers, I’d never been able to find one, or afford one, or buy one which I liked enough to spend money on – when a glass costs upwards of $600 retail, you want it to be the best possible…and even then, I didn’t have $600 to blow, being a poor university student at the time.

Anyway, enough backstory – what is a quizzing-glass??

Quizzing-glasses, or ‘quizzers’ as they’re also called, are small, pocket-sized handheld magnifying glasses with single lenses. The lenses are about the size of a large coin, and the frames and rims are typically made from gold, silver, or Pinchbeck-Brass (more about that later). Quizzers typically came with a handle or ring under the frame to hold in the hand or fingers, and the same handle or frame also served as an anchoring point for a chain, ribbon or cord, that affixed to the user’s clothing or went around the neck, to prevent damage or loss during the course of a day’s usage.

Quizzing-glasses were very common in the 1700s and 1800s. At a time when eyesight conditions were typically corrected with crude lenses and eyepieces such as Nurnberg spectacles and handheld lorgnettes, high society was looking for something more elegant and refined.

‘Nurnberg’ spectacle-frames, named after the town in Germany where they were invented – the most common type of spectacles in the 1700s. They would eventually evolve into the French ‘Pince-Nez’.

Quizzing-glasses were a lot more than just eyepieces to help you read stuff, in the 1700s, they were also flashy fashion-accessories! It was very common for a man – or even a woman – of means, to sport a quizzer as a fashion-accessory, even if they didn’t even need one! Peering at something through a quizzer became an upperclass affectation – one might, or might not, be genuinely interested in whatever they were looking at – but if they did look at it, then it was usually through the lens of a quizzer! In the later 19th century and even into the 20th century, this action was usually replaced by the more well-known monocle (yes, there is a difference, I’ll talk about that later, too!).

For gentlemen in the late 1700s and early 1800s, stereotypical accessories were the walking-stick and tricorne hat. For ladies, a parasol and fan were the most common accessories – but both sexes carried, and used quizzing-glasses.

Why Use a Quizzing-Glass?

I suspect the main reason why they were so popular is partially because they were cheaper. Spectacles – even relatively simple ones, needed so much work done to them – two identical lenses, two rims, screws, springs, a bridge, nosepads…and if you wanted them, then also temple-arms – and if you did want them, then that meant adding hinges, more screws, finials, and maybe even a protective case to go with it…it’s getting expensive now, isn’t it?

My Pinchbeck brass quizzer, from the early 1800s.

On the other hand, if you weren’t the type who desperately needed or used spectacles every day, and instead only did a casual amount of reading or close-work, then a quizzer, with its simpler construction, fewer parts, and smaller size, was generally considered to be a better, and cheaper, selection!

What’s the Difference Between a Quizzer and a Monocle?

Ever since I started carrying and using my quizzers (which is on a daily basis, thanks to my aforementioned eye-condition), I get people who come up to me and say ‘Oh wow! A monocle, I didn’t know anybody used those anymore…‘.

I grin, and smile and nod…and do my best not to correct their misinformation – because – it’s not a monocle!

Alright, so what’s the difference, then?

A quizzing-glass and a monocle both have a single lens fitted into a frame or rim. Both lenses serve as magnifiers, or otherwise help to correct vision.

That is where the similarities END.

A quizzing-glass is a handheld device – the frame is held by the ring or handle up to the eye, like a magnifying glass, and is attached to the user’s clothing by a chain, cord or strap of some variety. When not in use, it sits in the pocket of the user’s coat or jacket or waistcoat, or hangs on a cord or ribbon around the neck, usually resting at chest-level.

On top of that, a quizzing-glass lens can be almost any shape – round, oval, hexagonal, octagonal…even square! Since it doesn’t have to fit into the user’s eye-socket, the shape or even the size of the lens and the frame around it really doesn’t matter. By comparison, a monocle’s lens is always a perfect circle – it has to be, in order to fit into the user’s eye-socket, which is how a monocle is worn.

Monocles fit into the user’s eye-socket through friction. You pop it in, and the friction of your eyebrow resting and pressing against the top of the monocle holds it against your cheekbone, keeping the monocle in place. In cheaper monocles, which are just plain glass, the edge of the lens is smoothed off to make it more comfortable to wear.

On more expensive monocles, which come with frames and rims, seating the monocle in the eye-socket is done with the aid of two protruding shelves or ledges affixed to the edge of the frame, called ‘galleries’. A monocle has two galleries – one for the top of your eye-socket, and one for the bottom. You raise your eyebrow, pop in your monocle and then relax your facial muscles. The tension of your eye-socket pressing or resting against the monocle-galleries should be enough – if the monocle is sized and fitted correctly – to hold it in place.

The End of the Quizzing Glass

While monocles and quizzing-glasses were, for a time, equally popular, quizzing glasses died out in the 1800s, and by the turn of the 20th century, were a complete anachronism. Their demise is due chiefly to the fact that they were a fashion accessory, rather than being an actual vision-correction device, such as a monocle is designed to be. As fashions changed to be less frivolous and flamboyant to more straitlaced and tidy, people with eyesight problems chose to use lorgnettes or even modern-style temple-glasses to correct their eyesight, rather than fiddling around with a quizzing-glass. Monocles and modern spectacles had the advantage that while worn, they could leave both hands free to work.

By comparison to the demise of the quizzing-glass, the monocle remains in use today. Although it’s largely seen as a quaint holdover from the Edwardian era, the stereotypical eyepiece of well-bred, public-school-educated upper-class men, you can still buy – and even have prescribed for you – monocles which are brand-new. Most wearers are people who have poor vision in just one eye, and for whom a pair of spectacles isn’t strictly necessary.

I want to Buy a Quizzing Glass!

Quizzing glasses can be hard to find. After all, they haven’t been manufactured in the best part of nearly 200 years! They’re typically made of silver, gold, or pinchbeck (a type of really shiny brass). They were most common from the early 1700s up to the mid-1800s (when various types of spectacles and monocles replaced them in popularity). So, if you want to buy one, what do you need to look out for?

First thing’s first – you need to check the lens. The lens should be clean, clear and without cracks, scratches or chips. Test it for magnification power and see if you’re comfortable with the strength provided. Unless you have the facilities, contacts or the money to pay for someone to grind you a new magnifying lens, discard any quizzers with overly-scratched/chipped lenses.

Next thing to check is the condition of the frame or rim. In general, these should be alright, but you can find some (as I certainly have, in the past) which were bent or damaged. This can cause the lens to sit improperly, or even fall out, so rivets, screws and the edges of frames should all be checked for integrity. While you’re at it, examine any holding-loops or handles for issues like dents, cracks, warping or bending, and loose fitting parts. Just keep in mind that some holding-loops are meant to pivot and swing around, so don’t worry if they swivel back and forth.

How Much do Quizzing Glasses Cost?

Due to their rarity, quizzers are fairly expensive. Although some historical reenactment companies do manufacture modern quizzers in antique style, to purchase an actual Georgian-era quizzer will set you back quite a bit, anywhere from $100 – $300 for a silver one in variable condition (which is not too bad a price to pay) up to $400 – $600+ for one in solid gold. And that’s provided you don’t have to pay for the lens to be replaced, or for the frame to be repaired.

Quizzers were typically attached to the body of the wearer using a silk ribbon or lanyard. Since I wear mine in my upper waistcoat-pockets, I use simple pocketwatch chains (which is an option, if you choose to wear them that way). To stop them from swinging around and damaging the glass, keep your quizzer tucked out of the way (under your shirt or in your jacket pocket) when not using it.

 
by

Restoring a Junker: Breathing Life into an Old Pocketknife

A few weeks ago, I attended the annual Melbourne Pen Show, the oldest continuous collector’s and dealer’s fair of writing equipment, writing accessories and antiques in the southern hemisphere. This year was our 20th anniversary!

I sold quite a few things at the show – not just pens, but also silverware and antiques. Eager to see what else was on offer, I left a friend to guard my sales table, and went off to have a look around. Ironically, for something labeled as a pen show, I didn’t find any pens which excited me enough, in a price-range I was comfortable with, to actually buy. But while poking around through all the related offerings of inkwells, ink bottles, leathergoods, diaries, desk accessories and assorted antiques, I did find a row of rather crusty old pocketknives.

None of them were particularly appealing, but after sifting through all the detritus, I came across a rather handsome specimen with nickel-silver bolsters, and clad all over in lovely shimmering, glossy mother of pearl scales. Like all the other knives, this one was crusted and grimy and dare I say it, rather overpriced, but I perceived that, with a bit of effort, it could be turned into something both elegant, and useful.

A good bit of haggling managed to chip the price down and I bought it feeling happy for myself. Within just a few minutes of walking off with it and settling back behind my own sales table at the fair, I whipped out the knife and started thinking over what would need to be done to the knife to restore it to something resembling working condition…because it certainly wasn’t!

The knife was a standard, palm-sized slipjoint penknife, somewhat on the smaller end of medium, with two opposing blades contained within a pair of brass liners and a single backspring underneath, ornamented with nickel-silver bolsters and thick slabs of mother of pearl between, on either side. It could be a very attractive knife – if only the blades would open without ripping your fingernails out by the roots, and could cut anything worth a damn, without giving you tetanus at the same time, from all the surface-rust on the steel.

Who made the Knife?

The maker’s mark: Ed. Wusthof.

The knife was manufactured in the capital of European cutlery – the German town of Solingen – by the centuries old firm of Wusthof. Established in 1814, the Wusthof cutlery firm is still owned and operated by the Wusthof family, over two centuries after it was founded! Although more famous today for making kitchen-knives, it was common in the old days for cutlers to make all kinds of blades from scissors to razors, pocket-knives to silverware. Specialising in one particular type of blade (like what most companies do now) is a relatively recent phenomenon. Being a Solingen knife, I knew I’d bought something of unquestioned quality – it would have to be, if the company’s still family-run after 200 years!

Cleaning, cleaning, and…more cleaning

In my many years of collecting and tinkering with antiques, it’s long been my experience that the vast majority of antiques that are purchased from someplace – be it a fair, online, at an antiques shop, or from someone’s barn in the middle of nowhere – only require ‘restoration’ or ‘repairs’, and are ‘broken’ or ‘don’t work’ – not because they ARE broken, or don’t work, but rather, because they simply haven’t been cleaned. In decades!

Watches, clocks, sewing machines, typewriters, fountain pens, cars, record-players…anything, really…that’s been used rough and put away wet, as they say…will tend to seize up and not work after several years of use and absolutely no maintenance. The same goes for pocketknives.

Once I got the knife home, I opened it up and flooded it with oil. I stuffed it full of tissue-paper and started rubbing and scraping away at the inside of the knife. Even this half-hearted attempt at cleaning the knife yielded amazing…and…frankly…revolting…results! After their brief spelunk into the dark cavities of the knife, the tissues returned to the surfaceworld clagged up and caked in filth! Black, brown, sludgy GUNK all over!

Now came the really messy bit…removing all this grime.

Working out the Grime

Unless you have all the right tools, removing 60 years of encrusted grime and gunk (the accumulated decades of dust, pocket-lint, dead skin, coagulated oil and god knows what else) from the inside of a pocketknife can be a long, slow, sticky, oily and very, very, VERY messy process. Most people don’t have these tools…like me…and so you gotta restore the knife without them, the long way around…and this can take days.

The only way to do this is to repeatedly flood the knife with oil (I suggest sewing machine oil, but if you can stand the smell, WD-40 works as well, but keep in mind, you will be using a LOT of it, so best to get a lubricant that doesn’t smell…) and then work the blades open and shut, over and over and over again.

The oil seeps into the deepest nooks and crannies of the knife and dilutes the grime and crud that’s stuck inside the springs, pivots and liners. Opening and closing the knife the literally thousands of times that this will require, works the grime loose and it seeps out the bottom of the knife through the backspring with each working of the blades.

Get some tissues, paper-towels or toilet-paper. Fold it thick and lay it on a hard surface like a tabletop. Rub the knife – spring-side down – against the paper. Press it hard into the paper and rub it vigorously back and forth. The capillary action of the oil seeping out of the knife into the paper draws out all the grime stuck inside the springs and pivots. Now lift up the knife and stare in horror and revulsion at the THICK BLACK GREASY LINES on the paper. This is the grime that’s inside the knife which you MUST remove if the knife is to work properly.

Ever wondered why your pocketknife keeps jamming? This is why! All this gunk and grime, flushed out from between the springs and pivots with copious amounts of oil, represents just 15 minutes of cleaning, in a process that took EIGHT DAYS to complete.

“But this takes DAYS!!” I hear you say. “Can’t you just lubricate the pivots and have done with it!?”

Sure. You can. But you’re only lubricating the grime that’s stuck inside the knife. Once the oil dries up, the grime dries up, sticks to the springs and pivots all over again, and turns to glue. It fuses the blades shut through sheer friction and you’re back to square one all over again. The only way to get the knife working properly is to get ALL that crud out. And the only way to do that is to flush it through with oil.

“Can’t you speed it up somehow?”

Not unless you can rip the knife apart, clean it, and then competently put it back together. Using an ultrasonic cleaner does help somewhat, but it’s only effective once the grime has already been loosened. Ultrasonic cleaners work by vibrating and generating thousands of tiny bubbles that burst and explode against anything they come in contact with (like a knife placed inside an ultrasonic bath).

These thousands of explosions flush out and dislodge any grime and gunk they come into contact with. But it only works if the bubbles can reach the grime – in this case, the grime is trapped deep inside the knife. For the cleaner to be effective, you need to work the grime loose, first.

The knife is clean once all this grime has been removed from all the pivot points, gullies, crevices and chokepoints inside the spring mechanism. When the oil coming out of the knife is clear (or as clear as you can get it), and the blades swing open and shut smoothly with little (if any) resistance, then the knife is clean. If the blades keep jerking open and shut, then it needs more cleaning. You do not want jerky, unpredictable blades in your pocketknife AFTER you’ve sharpened those same blades – they become a serious safety risk!

Removing the Chip

As elegant as the knife was (or as elegant as I perceived it would be, after I was done with it), there was no hiding the fact that the blade had a tiny, but noticeable chip along its length. It was a tiny chip – probably less than a millimeter, but it was a chip, nonetheless, and I knew that it would be pointless to try and sharpen or use the knife if the chip wasn’t dealt with. The chip is a weak-spot in the blade, but it’s also an annoyance and a safety risk. And it prevents you from cutting anything properly, since you don’t have a straight, clean edge.

The chip in the blade (circled in blue) was tiny – barely a millimeter deep, but its presence was enough to effect the cutting ability of the knife, and so had to be removed.

The only way to remove the chip was to grind the blade down to the same level as the end of the chip. That’s right – you have to physically remove metal from the blade. Obviously, the bigger the chip, the more metal you have to remove, so ideally, any knives you buy should have no chips at all, or if they do, then they should be tiny chips like this, where grinding down the blade doesn’t affect it so badly.

Out came the sharpening stones!

I picked out the roughest sharpening stone I had. I laid it down and started grinding the blade back and forth, heel to toe along the stone in a sawing or slicing action. The aim was to slowly grind down the metal until the edge of the blade met the top of the chip, thereby eliminating it. Obviously to do this well, the blade needs to be level on the grinding stone, or else you end up with a wonky-looking blade. So if you do have to do this, make sure the blade’s edge is level against the stone as you grind. Stop every few strokes to check progress and stop grinding entirely when the chip is ALMOST gone.

Once you reach that stage, regular sharpening of the now dulled knife-edge should remove the rest of the chip and restore the blade to its proper profile.

The same spot on the blade, after the chip was ground out on a stone. Nice and straight again!

Keep in mind that, because the only way to remove a chip or nick in the blade is to remove the metal around the chip, smaller chips are easier to remove from blades than larger chips. A knife with a big chips in the blade should generally be avoided.

Polishing the Blades

Knives which are this old are typically made of carbon steel. That means that they’re very susceptible to rusting. Back in the old days, the way to stop this was to give the blades a protective coating. 60 or 70 years ago or more, this was accomplished by plating the blades in a non-corrosive metal…like nickel. Nickel not only gave the knife a sheeny silver shine, but it also prevented the blades and other steel parts of the knife from corroding.

50, 70, 100 years later, and all that nickel-plating is gone. The blades will probably be growing rust and starting to pit, by now. Heavy rusting and pitting on blades should be red-alert signs that the knife is not to be touched, let alone purchased, but light surface rust can generally be removed by careful polishing.

To do this, you’ll need fine-grit sandpaper of varying degrees of roughness, and a polishing compound of your choice (or if you don’t want to use a metal polish, the oil that you used to loosen out the grime inside the springs and pivots can also be used).

With enough persistence, and the right degrees of abrasiveness, a combination of fine sandpaper and a lubricating/polishing liquid can restore a knife’s blades to a stunning shine. If you really put effort into it, you can even get a glossy, mirror finish, but don’t forget that your main task is to remove the rust.

Sharpening the Blades

Once you’re done removing the grime from the springs and pivots and got the blades opening and closing smoothly, once you’ve removed any chips from the blades and have given them a good polish, the last step is to sharpen the blades. I always leave blade sharpening as the last step to prevent any nasty cuts during the cleaning process.

There’s a million articles on the internet about how to sharpen everything from corkscrews to axes, so I won’t go into the intricacies of the action, but I will say that a pocketknife has been sufficiently sharpened when you can slice cleanly through a sheet of paper or cardboard from point to shank, without the blade sticking to, or tearing up, the paper or card as it makes the cut.

The main blade.

Hold the edge of the sheet of paper or cardboard in the thumb and index finger of your left hand, three or four inches from the corner. Holding your knife in your right hand, slice downwards, from the edge of the paper ahead of your fingers, from one side of the sheet to the other. A sharp knife will cut cleanly into the edge of the paper, through the middle and down to the bottom, the whole length of the blade without stopping. You should be able to do this really fast. If the blade sticks, jams, catches or fails to cut in any way, or if it tears the paper in half while this happens, then it’s not sharp enough.

Once the blades have been thoroughly sharpened, then your knife is ready for use!

The smaller pen-blade.

This is the process that I went through to restore this knife back to working condition. It was a long, drawn out process that took over a week (removing 60, 70 years of grime was never going to be easy!), but it was worth it. Now I have another beautiful vintage pocketknife to add to my collection.

Keeping it Clean and Sharp

Once you’ve finished the arduous task of restoring your pocketknife, it’s important to keep it in good condition. Don’t force the blades, always keep your knife dry, and every now and then (not often, once or twice a year should be enough, if you use it regularly), flush out the springs and pivots with oil again to keep the action smooth and free of grime. And don’t forget to sharpen it – ideally after any heavy use, if you feel that the blades are starting to lose their edges. Used correctly, a sharp knife is safer than a blunt one.

 
by

Seven Day Straight-Razor Cased Set (Sheffield, 1910)

For a lot of aficionados of traditional wet shaving, mastering the use of a classic cutthroat straight-edge razor is often seen as the zenith of one’s learning-curve and the peak of one’s skill-acquisition when it comes to reverting back to this more relaxed, eco-friendly, and most masculine of grooming rituals. Often perceived as being phenomenally dangerous, once mastered, the use of a cutthroat razor is both relaxing, enjoyable, and dare I say it – far more fun than shaving with a toss-out plastic cartridge razor. Cutthroat razors shave smoother, cleaner, and due to the significant length of the blade’s cutting-edge, remove more stubble with fewer strokes, than conventional modern razors. This means that they also shave much faster than modern razors.

Kept sharp, smooth and dry, stropped smoothly and honed correctly, a cutthroat razor will last for decades – even centuries, before it has to be thrown out. If ever! This, along with all its other attributes, is why the traditional straight razor is coming back into fashion with a vengeance!

Three of my antique straight razors, ivory, horn, and ivory. The strop and the toothpaste jar are also antiques. The razors are from the 1880s/1890s, the toothpaste jar is from about 1875.

I’ve been using a cutthroat razor for the past eight years. I typically shave every other day, strop each razor before and after each use, and touch up the blades every six to eight weeks, to keep them sharp. In my time, I’ve come to appreciate the amazing variety which is available when you turn to the art of using a straight razor, over that of a cartridge monstrosity. The different blade-shapes, point-styles, scale-materials, razor-sizes, blade-widths…the amount of variation found in razor to razor, even within a single manufacturer – is almost endless. This is why a lot of straight razor users claim to suffer from a condition known as “R.A.D.” – Razor Acquisition Disorder! And it’s not hard to see why – these beautiful, useful, long-lasting tools come in an almost infinite variety of sizes, styles, designs, materials and finishes.

In my time I’ve owned razors made in Germany, Britain and France. I’ve had razors from Solingen, razors from Sheffield, razors from companies that don’t even exist anymore, and razors from manufacturers whose names have gone down in history as famous cutlers. I’ve had razors with scales made of horn, snakewood, celluloid, stainless steel…even ivory!…I have two of those!

But from the very earliest days of attempting to master the use of the straight razor, of all the razors I’ve collected, sharpened, stropped, cleaned, sold or kept on, of all the razors I’ve cut myself with (Thank goodness, not many!) – there was one type of razor that I’ve always wanted…and never managed to get my hands on. Until about a month ago.

Seven Day Razor Sets

Among users and collectors of straight razors, there’s always various types of razors which people love to try and collect. The thinnest blades, the widest blades, ivory-scaled, horn-scaled, silver-scaled (yes, silver scaled razors do exist. They’re rare, but they do exist), two-razor sets, four-razor sets, the oldest, the newest, the most beautifully decorated…the list of variations, and of collecting goals and of ‘grail acquisitions’ go on, and on, and on.

And, for a lot of collectors, one of their goals is often the procurement of a classic ‘seven day set’. And that was one of my goals until a few weeks ago, when I finally got my hands on one!

What is a ‘Seven Day Set’?

A seven day set refers to a boxed set of seven identical cutthroat razors, one razor for each day of the week. Such sets were (and still are) sold as luxury male grooming accessories, and their price reflects that. Whether antique or modern, such sets often cost inordinate amounts of money. A modern seven day set, with decorated scales and handsome, wooden case, made by a well-respected company in modern times, currently retails for $3,500. By comparison, the average price of a secondhand straight razor at a flea market is anywhere from $5.00 to $50.00, depending on how old it is, its condition, and where and by whom, and of what it was made. So yes, when I said that seven day sets were expensive, I mean they’re REALLY expensive.

The full set, all lined up in its box.

And they can be rare, and if they’re antique, they can also be in questionable condition, and if they’re not, then they cost a mint to purchase. Because of all these reasons, such sets are often out of the reach and price-range of most collectors.

But, I digress.

Seven day sets date back to the earliest days of straight razors. Back when most people were unable to sharpen their razors themselves (that’s if they owned a razor at all), it was often the duty of the local barber to maintain the razors of his customers by periodically freshening up the edges. To lengthen the gap between sharpenings, men often kept two or three spare razors around to use while their main razor was being touched up at the barbershop. The practice of occasionally swapping out razors and changing them around meant that apart from needing less frequent sharpening, the bodies of the razors’ blades themselves, would last a lot longer.

The blades. They’re 5/8 extra hollow, with a rounded point. The edges are so thin that they’re almost ‘singing’ blades, meaning that they let off this high-pitched ‘sching!’ when they’re struck or rubbed on something…like when they’re being used to shave with!

Catching onto this trend, it became the fashion for cutlery firms which manufactured and sold razors, to start selling them in sets. Two- and four-razor sets are relatively common, the idea being that you could chop and change razors as you worked your way through the week, preventing excessive wear or overuse on any one blade. For those who could afford it, however, manufacturers started coming out with the much flashier-looking ‘seven day sets’ – with one razor for each day of the week. By using each razor only once every seven days, the edge of each razor’s blade was preserved and would last a lot longer between sharpenings.

Are such sets common items?

Not really. Most men only ever owned one or two razors, and simply sharpened, stropped and cleaned that one, or those two razors, for the rest of their lives. Seven day sets were often seen as luxury items, usually purchased by wealthy gentlemen who had money to burn, and who had the servants (such as a personal valet) whose job it was to maintain his master’s wardrobe and personal grooming accessories, and whose duties included sharpening and stropping their master’s seven piece razor set at regular intervals to keep the blades clean, smooth and sharp. But since such sets are generally rarer, but also of higher overall quality, they’re also highly collectible, and high-quality antique seven day sets from famous cutlers and retail establishments can fetch several hundred, or even thousands of dollars.

My Seven Day Set

As you may have surmised from what you’ve read so far, I’ve been chasing one of these sets for a long time. The better part of eight years! And after a long and exhausting hunt, I finally have one! The reason it’s taken so long for me to find one should now be pretty self-evident. They’re not exactly common, finding one in good condition can be tricky, and they’re also very, very expensive! But the gods of good fortune smiled on me, and I finally managed to get my hands on one!

The original manufacturer’s guarantee paper that came with the set. It’s 120 years old and still in such fantastic condition! Pretty incredible, huh? I’ve since laminated this slip of paper in a sheet of clear adhesive plastic, to prevent it from being torn and damaged or water-marked. I wanted it to last another 120 years, after all!

The set which I purchased – at a local flea-market – was made in the English city of Sheffield in about 1900. Sheffield, like Solingen in Germany, has had a long and proud history of manufacturing cutlery of all kinds, from scissors to pocketknives, straight razors to silverware. If you’ve purchased a bladed implement of any kind, which has the names of either of these two towns marks on it, then you can be assured that they are blades of quality!

The scales on the razors which make up my set are certainly nothing flashy – plain black celluloid plastic. Although to be honest, if the scales were made of anything else, I doubt I would be able to afford a set of any kind at all! The blades are 5/8, extra-hollow ground, with wafer thin, almost ‘singing-blade’ edges. For those who have never heard of something like this, that means that the blade edges are so thin that they vibrate and flex when the razor’s being used, causing it to emit high-pitched rasping noises. Such blades can be tricky to use just due to how thin and flexible they are, but if you can pull it off, they give the most amazing shaves…

The case itself is made of wood and covered in red Morocco leather on the outside, and soft, purple felt and velvet on the inside, with the maker’s name and model of the razor stamped on the underside of the lid in beautiful gold leaf. Although not easy to read, the spine of each razor-blade is actually marked with a day of the week on it.

The case, closed. Wine red moroccan leather, with gold leaf border around the edge.

Is it a top of the range seven day set? Probably not. Something like this was likely more in the “plain but serviceable” range of merchandise. But regardless of that, it was in great condition when I bought it. It required all the usual things done to it – clean the blades, sharpen the edges, strop the razors, blow out the dust, etc, but the razors and the box that they came in didn’t have any real issues, beyond one or two cosmetic flaws – the result of being, at a pinch, nearly 120 years old!

Along with all that, it even came with a little bonus – the original product warranty slip inside the box!…probably way out of date by now…but it is interesting to read about what constituted a product warranty or guarantee 120 years ago! Fascinating to read. One wonders if such things will happen with old iPhones in 120 years? I doubt it. Most of them barely last 120 days…

Restoring the Set

Honestly, restoring this set was pretty easy. It really didn’t need that much attention. A bit of glue to stop the leather from coming off the wooden case, blowing out the dust and lint, and the usual cleaning, polishing and sharpening and a bit of rust-removal on the blades of the razors was all that was required. I spent ages at the market just looking at the set, weighing it up and scrutinising every part of it in minute detail before I ever decided to buy it, so I was very certain that there wasn’t anything wrong with the set that I wouldn’t be able to sort out myself. Thank goodness I was right!

I want to buy a seven day set! Help me…?

Seven day razor sets are pretty easy to find – just check eBay or any of the major straight razor manufacturers which are still in business – but not so easy to buy. As I explained already, they can be prohibitively expensive…especially if you’re buying one brand-new!

Given that state of affairs, perhaps you decide that buying a secondhand set might be more within your price-range? If so, then there are a few more things that you need to consider.

First, you need to be sure that all the razors actually match. The whole point of a seven day set is that all seven razors are identical! Every razor in the box should look exactly the same (except for the days of the week, should your set have these included).

The beautiful gold leafing on the interior liner reads “The Legion (Reg’d.) Razor”. Tested Finest Grade Steel. Sheffield, England.

Check in particular for things like warped or cracked scales, chipped or cracked blades, excessive rust, blade-wear and water-spots. Antique razors are made of carbon steel, not stainless steel. This means that they can rust very, very easily. Check for “frowning” or “smiling” blades (blades with too much wear in the middle – frowning, or on either end – smiling) – this is a sign that the razor was poorly maintained and sharpened incorrectly.

Light rust can be polished or sanded off with ultrafine sandpaper or steel wool, and a touch of metal polish. Heavy rusting which would impact the structural integrity of the blade should be avoided.

The next thing to do is to check the condition of the box or case. The majority of seven day sets were sold in handsome, wooden cases, some were plain wood, some had glass lids (although this is more of a modern innovation), and some were covered in beautifully decorated Moroccan leather, with gold-leaf edges. Check for any rips, tears or wear in the leather, and any damage to the box. Minor things which can be fixed with glue and a bit of patience shouldn’t put you off. Major damage like faulty hinges, catches, or cracks should be approached with caution. If you have the skills to repair such damage, then go ahead and buy it, however.

Interiors of these boxes are usually lined in silk and velvet, if they’re lined at all (some had simple, plain wooden interiors). Make sure that the linings are undamaged and that seams aren’t split or worn (especially around the hinges). Any gold-leaf decoration should be crisp, whole and legible. In some cases, it can be touched up slightly with a gold-paint pen if you can find one of the right shade, without ruining the overall look of the box.

Of particular importance – make sure that the box’s closure mechanism is sound. You’ll be in for a nasty (and possibly very painful) shock if the box falls open accidentally when you’re carrying it or picking it up, scattering your razors all over the floor – or even worse, all over your feet! Spring-loaded catches should snap shut securely, and clasps should close firmly. A case that’s held shut with a rubber band is a case to beware of.

Fortunately, my razors and the case which they came in were largely free of issues like this, so I was able to buy them and enjoy them without investing much time and effort into their restoration and repair. There really wasn’t much to worry about, and it’s been a lot of fun writing about them, and being able to share them with the world.

 

 

 

 
by

Antique Russian Niello Silver Cigarette Case (Moscow, 1873)

As my blog hits its 9th anniversary (yeah that’s right, the end of October, 2018, is its NINTH year!), I decided to post about something a little different. And this year, the little different thing is something I picked up at my local market – the first time I visited the market after getting home from a recent overseas holiday.

Finding stuff at flea-markets is very hit-and-miss. Sometimes you can find amazing stuff for great prices…and sometimes all you discover is overpriced junk or cheap trash that really makes you wonder why you bothered to wake up so damn early in the first place!

Anyway, the posting for this anniversary is the beautiful, quirky little silver case or box which I picked up this week just gone. Originally a cigarette case, I decided to repurpose it for holding my peppermints – a function for which it is surprisingly well-suited! So what is this item, and what’s its history?

So, what Is It?

I bought this beautiful silver cigarette or cigarillo case at my local Sunday flea-market. It had no dents, no scratches, marks, scrapes or any other major damage. There was some loss to the decorations applied to the silver surface of the box, but was about it! The catch and spring were good and strong, the hinges were in excellent condition, and the hallmarks were sharp and crisp. A bit of haggling and arm-twisting saw a decent discount, and I became the proud owner of what is now – my second piece of Romanov-era Russian silverware!

Measuring approximately 3.5, maybe 4 inches across, and about 2 inches wide, this cute little Russian cigarette case just jumped out at me because of its distinctive decorations, which I’ll go into more detail later on. The four square little tabs or hooks on the inside of the case (for holding the straps that kept the cigarettes or cigarillos in place when the case was opened) are still there, and replacing the strap should be pretty easy, if anyone ever decides to!

The Hallmarks

As with most antique European silverware, this piece comes with hallmarks. The Russian hallmarking system is very similar to other major European hallmarking systems, so in that respect it’s pretty easy to read. It differs in that they sometimes use the Russian or Cyrillic alphabet, instead of the more conventional Roman alphabet which is common elsewhere, but still – if you know what you’re looking at, the marks are pretty easy to read.

The case came with two sets of hallmarks – one on each half of the case. As with most European hallmarking systems, the Russian layout comes with four hallmarks:

The date-mark, the purity mark, the maker’s mark, and the assay mark.

The date-mark tells you when the piece was assayed.

The purity mark tells you what purity the silver is (how much silver and how much copper is in the alloy).

The maker’s mark tells you who made the piece.

The assay mark tells you where it was assayed, and – almost unique to Russian silver – the name of the assay-master of the office where it was certified.

Part of the hallmarks. The date is ‘1873’, ’84’ is the zolotnik purity standard and the symbol at the end is the assay-mark for Moscow, Russia.

The marks on this case are the two Cyrillic letters which are the maker’s initials. This is followed by the double-mark of assay-master, and date-mark stacked on top of each other. In this case, the assay master is Veniamin Vasilyevich Savinsky, and the date of assay is 1873.

The next mark along is [84], which refers to ’84 Zolotnik’, the Russian system of grading silver-purity. A zolotnik was an old Russian coin. The name was recycled to be used as the name for the silver-grading system in the 1700s (it’s like saying that “$50.00” = 95% silver, and “$40.00” = 80% silver, etc).

In this case, ’84 Zolotnik’ = 87.5% silver purity.

The final mark is the assay-mark for the city of Moscow. Cities with assay-halls existed throughout the Russian empire, including in Kiev in the Ukraine, and of course – St. Petersburg, where the famous House of Faberge, jewelers to the Romanov Court, had their headquarters.

Niello Decoration

When it comes to antique silverware, there are many, many different types of decorating: Repousse, engraving, chasing, cloisonne, enameling…and niello. If you’ve never heard of niello (“n’yellow”), then that’s probably not too surprising, since it’s not really that common these days as a decorative technique.

So what is ‘niello’?

Niello is a fine powder or paste made up of crushed sulphur and silver, with copper or in the past – lead – added to it. Ground into dust, the powder (or sometimes, paste) is applied to engraved decorations on a piece of silverware. The piece of silver, with the niello powder applied to it, is then heated. The powder softens, melts and runs into the grooves of the engraving or any other areas hollowed out by decorating tools. When it cools, the powder hardens and is baked onto the silver underneath. It’s like a crude form of enameling.

After polishing, the applied niello turns a distinctive black or midnight-blue colour. In this way, the decorated piece of silverware takes on a contrasting two-tone dark-light or ‘black-white’ appearance, with the niello’d areas turning black or midnight-blue, and the non-applied areas retaining their silvery sheen.

The underside of the case.

Niello as a decorative technique has been around for centuries. It dates back, with stops and starts, to at least the Ancient Romans and examples of nielloware have been found in various metals (brass, bronze, copper, silver, gold etc) for thousands of years. Famous Roman author, Pliny the Younger, who gained everlasting fame for his eyewitness accounts of the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79AD, left a recipe for creating niello powder, which includes using silver sulphide, copper and crushed silver powder.

Niello reached a peak in the Medieval and Renaissance eras around the 1200s-1500s, lasting into the Early-Modern era of the 1600s up to 1800. A person who was competent in doing niello decorations was called a niellist.

Goldsmiths, silversmiths, engravers and niellists were important figures in the 1400s and 1500s – as workers of fine metal, they had the skills to engrave, carve and shape the pieces of type required to cast the hundreds of little blocks required for the new movable-type printing-press which came on the scene starting in the 1450s.

Russian Nielloware

Niello allowed for creativity in decoration, but it had one major drawback – just like the Ford Model T – it only came in black!…or very very very dark blue…if you angled the piece against the light…just right. Because of this, in most countries, niello started losing out in favour against other decorative techniques such as guilloche, or engine-turning, and enameling. For one thing, enameling could be transparent, and it came in all kinds of colours, patterns and styles.

While most countries in the 1800s started switching over to enamel decoration on silverware – France, Britain and most other European countries in particular, Russia held onto niello and Russian silverware is famous for its considerable use of niello decoration at a time when most silversmiths in other European countries had abandoned it for much more versatile enameling.

Niello was applied to all kinds of things by Russian silversmiths and goldsmiths. Pocketwatches, card-cases, boxes, cigarette cases, spoons, napkin-rings and especially – jewelry.

Closing Thoughts

Admittedly, niello has never REALLY been my thing. I didn’t really buy this piece because it was niello. I bought it more because of the colour, the pattern, the condition, and the fact that the case was made in Imperial Russia! I don’t know a great deal about antique Russian silver, so this is a bit of a learning experience for me. This brings my collection of antique Russian silverware up to the heady number of…

…two!

Two is a collection…right?

My other piece of antique tsarist Russian silver. This beaker was also assayed in Moscow, but back in about 1855.

Either way, I’m glad to have it, and glad to share it, and its history, with the world!

 
by

Sterling Silver “Seal-Top” Personal Spoon

The world we inhabit in the 21st century moves so fast and changes in everything from technology to social acceptability to science and our understanding of the world and life itself happen so swiftly that it’s easy to forget just how unchanging and how slow the pace of life used to be. And I was recently reminded of just that, when I picked up a curious piece of silver while mosying around at my local flea-market on a cold, blustery day, with half the stalls empty, because people were scared of the possibility of rain.

I stopped at one of the regular stalls and perused the array of nicknacks under the glass display case, and my eye was drawn to four spoons, each one slightly different. Three of them were the rather bog-standard silver ‘apostle’ or ‘saint’ spoons – silver souvenir pieces designed as trinkets for the tourist trade in some far off country. However, one spoon in particular, caught my eye, mostly because it was so unusual. It was both decorative, but also surprisingly plain. Just the sheer design of it told me that this was something different, even as far as spoons went.

To say that the spoon was different was putting it mildly. It had a very large, circular bowl, a very thin, hexagonal handle, and a strangely shaped head. It wasn’t flat or round or anything, but shaped like an upside-down wax seal. When I picked up the spoon and examined the end of the handle, I noticed it had a series of dots on it, which formed letters, and a date: 1629.

At first, I got really excited, but when I asked the price, which was surprisingly cheap, I realised that it couldn’t possibly be nearly 400 years old! But perhaps it was still silver?

I flipped the spoon over to have a look. Stamped on the handle, just behind the bowl, was a series of English hallmarks, which said the spoon was made in Sheffield, in 1926, by the famed silver firm of Mappin & Webb (a company founded in the 1700s, and still operating today!).

OK, s it wasn’t a 17th century spoon, but it was still silver, and it was still made by a famous company! After walking around the market two or three times, I decided that I wanted it, if for no other reason than the novelty factor.

So What’s so Special about this Spoon, anyway?

What you’re looking at here is a reproduction, in sterling silver, of a spoon called a ‘seal-top’ spoon, a type that was popular in Britain and Europe in the 1500s, all the way up to the mid-1600s. It’s characterised by a wide, round bowl, and a long, thin handle. It gets its name from the ‘seal’ at the end of the shaft, a popular design choice of the day (other similar spoons came with figures of animals or religious figures on their ends).

Such decorative features were usually just that – decorative. But not in the case of seal-tops. These actually served a purpose…and it wasn’t so that you could seal thank-you notes with them after dinner, either! To understand why they were so common, one needs to understand a bit about the history of cutlery (yes, cutlery has history, just like everything else).

The Deal with the Seal

The purpose the pretty, flat circular disc at the top of the seal-top spoon was to serve as a seal. Or more specifically, as a sign or identifier (which is what seals are, anyway). The purpose of this disc was so that the spoon’s owner would have somewhere convenient and tasteful to engrave their initials, name, or special date, into the spoon.

Why?

Well so that the spoon could be identified as theirs, duh!

But why on earth would that be the case? Surely people in the 1500s had as many spoons as we do now, right?

Actually, no they didn’t. And this is where the history-bit comes in.

A Brief History of the Spoon

Since the beginning of time, mankind has tried to find a way of delivering food to his mouth. This was usually done with the hands. Which was fine…if the food could be handled. If it couldn’t, then something else needed to be used in order to deliver sustenance to the body. For a long time, this was the knife. A sharp blade could be used to pierce meat, fish, vegetables and fruit and pick it up and eat it. A knife could also be used to slice and cut food into more manageable pieces.

But you can’t eat everything with a knife. What about peas? Or rice? Or soup?

To get over this shortcoming of the humble blade, people started crafting out a device which could scoop things up to bring them to the mouth for eating. Originally, such devices were whatever could be found in nature – shells and hollowed pieces of wood, for example. Eventually, the idea came about that if you put a handle on this scoopy-thing, you could use it to dig around in hot stews and soups without getting your fingers burned, or losing your scoop if it slipped out of your fingers.

The first spoons were born!

Early spoons were pretty crude. They were usually just carved out of wood, or bone, or were made from clay. You ever tried carving or shaping a spoon by hand, from scratch?

Yeah. Imagine how long that takes. Imagine how fiddly it is to make one. Imagine how frustrated you’ll be when you’ve snapped it in half, and you can’t eat again until you’ve carved yourself another one. Imagine how delicate and fragile they are and how easily they can be lost, stolen or broken!

This is precisely why for much of history, if you owned any type of eating utensil, it was a spoon, and it’s also why most people did not own more than one. They were useful and versatile, but also fragile and tricky to make. That said, by the Middle Ages, it was common for everyone to eat with spoons, and it became very common for people to have their own personal spoons. There was no such thing as having a multitude of spoons lying around, just in case you wanted to eat something – no! You had your own personal spoon that you ate things with.

This became so ingrained that if you went anywhere – to the local pub, to a friend’s house for dinner, to the lord’s manor for a grand feast or if you traveled overseas or cross-country – you never took it for granted that the place you were going to had spare spoons lying around – there was absolutely no guarantee that there would be!

Because of this culture, ownership of personal cutlery sets (‘trousses’) became very common. In both Europe and in Asia, such sets were manufactured. They differed slightly from place to place (Asian sets had a spoon, knife and chopsticks, a European one would’ve had a spoon and knife). Again, to ensure that everyone knew which set belonged to which person, it was possible to personalise your own specific set to your taste and desire.

“Being Born with a Silver Spoon in your Mouth”

We’ve all heard this expression. But what does it mean? Where does it come from? How did it come to be?

As I’ve said – for much of history, it was common for people to own their own personal spoons, sets of chopsticks, knives or other eating utensils that they carried with them, or used when they needed to eat. This became such a part of life that it became common for families to gift sets or pieces of cutlery to other family-members, specifically, to newborn infants. Chances were, the spoon the child was given at birth would be the one that they used for the rest of their lives!

Because of this, spoons had to be made of something more durable than wood or clay or porcelain. Where possible, they were made of metal. Usually, this was bronze, pewter, and maybe later on, brass. But one particular type of metal was always favoured – good old-fashioned silver!

Why Were Spoons made of Silver?

Spoons were made of silver because in times past, silver was a very important metal – far moreso than it is today. Silver was seen not only as a statement of wealth, it was also seen as a store of wealth – often, the grade of silver permissible in a particular country was the same grade that was used in the country’s coinage. This meant that in hard times, any silverware you owned could be melted down and stamped into coins, and in times of great wealth, coins could be melted down and made into silverware! This was a perfectly legal process – all you had to do was go through the right channels and it was done!

Because of this, families which wanted to be financially secure owned as much silverware as possible. That’s why you see things like silver candlesticks, silver plates, silver cups, bowls, silver trays, teapots, and of course – silver spoons.

But in an age when silver was very expensive, obviously, only the richest people (usually royalty, nobility and the wealthy mercantile classes) could afford to do this. To have something as small and as trivial as a spoon be made of silver was therefore seen as a sign of wealth and status, especially if your family was rich enough to have such a spoon made for you before you were even born!

This is how the expression ‘to be born with a silver spoon’ came to be, and why it became synonymous with being born into riches and money.

 
by

1783 “El Cazador” Shipwreck Piece of Eight

While chatting to an acquaintance-stallholder at the local flea-market, I was approached by her friend who wanted to know if I was interested in buying a coin. I’d met this fellow a couple of times before and we’d always had fascinating conversations about antiques, silverware and coins, and so I agreed to have a look at whatever it was he was willing to show me. He took a badly cracked and chipped coin-case out of a plastic bag he had with him, and presented me with a very, very, VERY worn and battered Spanish Piece of Eight encapsulated therein.

To say that the coin was in bad condition was putting it mildly. The surface was so pitted and scratched and the edges were so worn and chipped that it looked like someone had tried to sandblast it or something. And in a way, that’s exactly what had happened!

The damaged coin-case, bearing serial #3498007-073, said that the coin was from the “El Cazador” shipwreck of 1784. At once, I was interested – I’ve never owned any real shipwrecked treasure before! We haggled back and forth and finally settled on a price that I was comfortable with, and I added another piece of eight to my collection…which now numbers five pieces! (Only three more to go! Haha!!).

I decided to remove the coin from the case and add it to my collection, but I also decided to keep the case (damaged as it is) as proof of provenance, should I ever need it in the future.

So What Is This Coin and What Makes it Special?

The coin in question is a 1783 Spanish Dollar, also called an 8 Reales or Peso de Ocho coin. To most people, it goes by a far more common name, however.

The Piece of Eight.

What makes this coin stand out from other pieces of eight is that it’s a shipwreck coin. That’s why it’s in such terrible condition – it’d spent two hundred years at the bottom of the ocean! And that sort of treatment has caused the coin to take on a particular patina and toning which is unique to shipwreck coinage, and that’s what makes it more desirable and more interesting than other coins.

Even without the case, would it still be identifiable as shipwreck treasure?

Oh yeah, sure! Yes, coins like these are faked, but there are ways of telling genuine ones. Mostly, what you’re looking for are genuine signs of aging. Natural wear, grime and toning/patina which have built up over the coin over the course of hundreds of years. This is something that you cannot replicate on a fake coin (or at least, not easily). About the only way you can is to make a copy of an original shipwreck coin by making a casting of it. But that won’t work because the accumulated encrustations on the real coin would show up as metal on the fake one – which obviously wouldn’t happen if the coin had really spent the better part of two or three centuries underwater.

The blackened areas on the coin are the result of salt corrosion and discolouration from 200 years spent at the bottom of the Mexican Gulf. Even if you tried to polish this, you’d never be able to move those spots entirely, so I haven’t bothered to try.

Determining whether a coin is real or fake is a matter of close examination, the balance of probabilities, and understanding what you’re looking at, how it was made, and how metal ages over time. It’s something gained through experience and careful study.

What is “El Cazador” and what happened to it?

El Cazador (“The Hunter” in Spanish) was an 18th century warship (specifically, a brig of war), which was commissioned by the reigning king of Spain (at the time, Charles III), to deliver several tons of silver coinage from mints based in Spanish Mexico, to the capital city of Spanish Louisiana (New Orleans) in 1784. At the time, the United States was still limited to the eastern coastline and much of the Americna interior was still divided up between the French and the Spanish.

Paper currency and promissory notes being used in Spanish North America at the time were heavily prone to counterfeiting and forgery. This led to a lack of confidence in such currency, as a result, it meant that soldiers and sailors living in New Orleans at the time refused to accept it as payment since there was no guarantee that the notes were actually worth anything!

It was to prevent a complete financial meltdown that El Cazador was chartered to make this vital mission, and to restore the colony’s faith in Spanish currency, by replacing flimsy paper notes, not worth anything, with cold, hard cash that could be trusted!

The bust of King Charles III of Spain and the year “1783”. The heavily pitted and worn-down surface is the result of centuries of sand grinding against the metal as it was washed over it over and over again by the action of waves and currents. The coin was essentially sandblasted for two hundred years, which also wore down the edges of the coin, which is why they look so irregular.

To achieve this goal, the El Cazador sailed from Spain to the Mexican port city of Veracruz, where it was loaded with the silver which it would then transport to Louisiana, departing from Spain on the 20th of October, 1783, and arriving in Mexico three months later. Here, the ship was loaded with the required cargo os silver. All told, El Cazador was loaded with about 450,000 coins – Spanish Reales of various denominations. Roughly 400,000 pieces of eight, and 50,000 other Reale coins of small change – 4 Reale and 2 Real coins, etc., an amount totaling upwards of 37,500lbs (or 18.75 tons) of silver!

This coin was one of those 450,000 which vanished into the depths of history…

The Last Voyage of the El Cazador

Once loaded, the El Cazador departed Veracruz on the 11th of January, 1784, setting a course North-Northeast, across the Gulf of Mexico towards New Orleans. At the wheel was Gabriel de Campos y Pineda, a captain selected personally by the King of Spain himself, to command this vital mission.

Exactly what happened to the El Cazador will never be known. Spanish treasure ships lost to hurricanes were extremely common occurrences in those days (read my post about the history of the piece of eight to see just how many fleets were lost in storms back in the 1600s and 1700s!) and it’s likely that the ship succumbed to such a storm.

“The Shipwreck that Changed the World”

The impact of the loss of the El Cazador was great. When it failed to arrive in New Orleans, divers and ships immediately went out into the Gulf of Mexico to determine what had happened to it. No trace of the ship could be found, and the loss of so much money became a disaster for the Spanish and their new world colonies. In June, 1784, the ship and its priceless cargo were officially listed as being lost at sea. While further attempts to ship silver to Louisiana were attmpted, the situation there, already so precarious due to the local distrust of the currency, finally collapsed altogether.

A few years later, the French revolution, and war with Napoleonic France only made things even worse, and eventually, Spain ceded its Louisiana colony to the French in 1800. This was the same territory which was sold to the United States in 1803, in the famous “Louisiana Purchase”. So basically, the United States of the early 1800s doubled in size because of a shipwreck.

What Happened to the El Cazador?

So, in 1784, a ship went down in the Mexican Gulf and was never heard from again. Right?

Well, sort of. The El Cazador was certainly not heard from for the better part of 200 years. This changed in 1993, when some guys out in the Gulf decided to go fishing. On a boat ironically called the Mistake, they sailed through the Gulf and tossed their nets overboard to see what they could find. When the nets snagged on something, they winched them up to find that they had caught large clumps of rock!

Initially, the men were frustrated and disappointed. That is, until one of the men broke one of the clumps open and took a closer look at it. He suddenly realised that it wasn’t a rock after all, but coins! Hundreds and hundreds of silver coins, fused together by two hundred years of corrosion and age!

Clumps of coins from the El Cazador, fused together by the sea after 200 years under water.

The Mistake’s captain, Jerry Murphy, suddenly got really excited, and rang up his lawyer as soon as he could, in order to obtain salvage rights on what he was sure, had to be a sunken ship. Further research identified the wreck as being El Cazador, and soon, huge clumps of silver coins were being winched and hoisted up from the deep, along with loads of other artifacts, including various cannons, and also the ship’s bell.

The coins were eventually cleaned and carefully pried apart. They were eventually sold off, either as single coins with certificates of authenticity, or as cased pieces in plastic frames with the name of the wreck printed on labels and stuck on them. Given that the El Cazador had 400,000 pieces of eight on board, getting your hands on one isn’t too difficult – just make sure that if you’re going to attribute your coin to the El Cazador wreck, that you get as much documentation and proof of it as you can. When it comes to antiques and history – provenance is power!

So Now What Happens?

Well, the coin is now part of my collection! Although the case is damaged, the frame with the authentication sticker is still intact, and I’ve kept it aside as proof of provenance. I’ve researched coin cases (or ‘slabs’ as they’re called in collecting circles) and removing coins from their slabs doesn’t deteriorate or damage the coin’s value or desirability in any way (provided that you keep evidence of the coin’s history, should it have any, and you didn’t damage the coin when it came out of the slab). So excited to have my first real piece of Spanish sunken treasure!

“I want a Shipwrecked Piece of Eight!…Where do I get one!?”

Believe it or not, you can just look them up online. There are a number of websites which act as official agents for various discovered shipwrecks. Simply find the right website and you’ll actually be able to buy genuine shipwreck silver coming from specific wrecks. Each coin comes with some form of authentication, either a framed certificate, or a slabbed coin in a plastic case.

Personally, I think a loose coin and a framed certificate is better, because slabbing a coin and encasing it in plastic can cause all kinds of problems later on, should you want to rehouse or re-display the coin in some other manner. Various coin-dealers I’d spoken to were all of the opinion that slabbing really isn’t the best thing to do with coins, since it can make them less desirable (what’s the point of buying a coin if you can’t pick it up, basically…).

More Information about the El Cazador and its Treasure?

Sure, here’s a few handy sites about the wreck, and its treasure, and how you might be able to buy a genuine piece of shipwreck silver or gold. These websites relate to the wreck of the El Cazador, but also to another famous Spanish treasure wreck: the galleon Atocha. If you’re interested in shipwreck treasure, then definitely check that one out!

http://artifactexchange.com/index.php/shipwrecks/el-cazador

http://www.elcazador.com/

"El Cazador" Shipwreck

 
by

Buried Treasure: Four Spanish Pieces of Eight!

Digging through albums, boxes and cases of old, crusted-up, grimy, forgotten coins from defunct entities from all around the world can often be a thankless and pointless task. You find all kinds of coins which are not particularly rare, or particularly interesting, or particularly valuable. You find all kinds of coins which are grubby, sticky, grimy, tarnished, chipped, dented and otherwise distinctly unappealing in one way or another.

But occasionally – just occasionally – you do find gems!

Finding the Coin of Destiny

This post is inspired by some coins which I found in the past month or so, while digging around at the local market.

It was on a cold, blustery morning, when I trudged through my local flea-market looking for…stuff. I stopped at the table of a regular stallholder and started burrowing through the cases and trays of coins on offer. Admittedly I don’t do this as a matter of habit – I rarely look for coins at flea-markets, and rarely bother looking through huge swathes of the things, since nine times out of ten, the coins I’m interested in are nowhere to be found, except for specialist coin-collecting stores.

But as I rummaged, I found something, buried under all the offerings of British shillings, Dutch 2 Guilder coins, Indian Rupees, grimy copper pennies and American half-dollars. Inside some simple cardboard coin-holders, crudely stapled together and with near-illegible biro-markings on the border, were three silver coins.

LARGE silver coins!

Out of sheer curiosity, I picked them up and felt them in my hand. They were heavy. Substantial pieces of silver. I examined them closely and spotted a coat of arms between two pillars with banners coiled around them, beneath a crown. Around the edges were Latin inscriptions. One of them read:

“HISPAN. ET. IND. REX. M. 8R. I. I.”

With a stupid little grin on my face, I flipped the little packet over and on the other side was:

“FERDIN. VII. DEI GRATIA” and four numbers: “1820”.

Oh boy.

Oh Boy!

OH BOY!!

A (nearly) 200-year-old silver coin. And not just any silver coin. I looked back at the other side. Sure enough, clear for everyone to see:

“8R”

As in ‘Eight Reales’ (pronounced ‘Ree-ahlz‘)

Out of all that crud and junk, I’d just picked up one of the most famous coins in the world.

A Spanish Dollar. Better known as a Piece of Eight. Fought, squabbled, traded and passed from hand to hand between pirates, traders, merchants, sailors, kings, queens, soldiers and colonials since the end of the 15th century, it is a coin of almost legendary history. A coin, rare variations of which, can fetch literally thousands of dollars – for a piece of silver no bigger than the dial of a man’s wristwatch.

I picked up another one.

“1790”

Ooooh boy!!

I picked up the third one!

“1779”

Hot dawg, we got us a winner!

I flipped the coins back and forth to check the prices and their conditions. When I saw the prices, my heart skipped a beat. They were going cheap! Real cheap!

The three Pieces of Eight (top, bottom and left) which have joined my antique coin collection, together with their brother on the right.

That was when all the alarm-bells started going off in my head. This is either the bargain of a lifetime…or it’s a very clever forgery – and yes, these coins ARE faked. I know that for a fact because I’ve bought (but managed to return) a fake, once in the past (that was a close call!).

Now, as an aside, you might ask, what does it matter? If it’s a nice one, and you can’t afford a real one, then, why not buy a fake? It doesn’t really matter, right?

Yeah, but the problem is – a fake may not matter to you, now – but it’ll matter in 50 years when your grandsons take it to the Antiques Roadshow and their five minutes of fame on international television becomes an international embarrassment when they find out that grandpa got duped with a fake coin. Nobody wants fakes. And if you just coughed up $200 for one, and can’t get it back…you’re screwed!

Anyway. Back to the coins!

Very politely, I asked to examine them. I carefully teased back the staples using a precision instrument – better known as a fingernail – and slipped them out. I popped the three coins from their covers – the three pieces of eight…and then asked to borrow the dealer’s jewelry scale.

If you’re going to be any kind of antiques collector, or dealer – I highly recommend getting one of these little pocket scales. They don’t cost much and their highly precise measurements are specifically for measuring precious metals. I turned the scale on and popped the coins on, one at a time.

A piece of eight should weigh NO MORE than 27.07g. NO LESS than 26g, unless it’s REALLY, REALLY, REALLY worn out.

Coin #1: 26g. Exactly.
Coin #2: 26.52g.
Coin #3: 26.69g.

Alright! Looks like we’re in the clear. It’s a cheap and dirty field-test, but it’s generally quite trustworthy. It’s based on the fact that specific metals have specific densities. A specific size of silver coin will always weigh a specific weight, as opposed to one made of say, nickel-silver, or steel, or some other cheap, imitation-metal like that. A nickel-silver or pewter coin won’t weigh the same amount for the same size of metal.

At first, the weight of the first coin (at only 26g) worried me. But then, that coin was the oldest, and by far the most worn-out. I figured the weight of 26g was acceptable given its condition.

The backs of the coins, showing their ages. 1779, 1790, 1802, and 1820.

Satisfied that the coins were indeed the real deal, next came the haggling. This is where visiting the same flea-market every week for 20 years, so often that people recognise you on sight, comes in handy. When you’re a friendly, regular, weekly face to the long-term dealers, they know who you are, they know what you buy, they know what you pay, they know that eventually, you will buy something from them sooner or later. This helps grease the gears of generosity.

In the end, I toddled off with the coins in my pocket. They were already dirt-cheap and I got them even better than that! Very excited! This now brings my collection (it can now be called a collection, right?) up to the giddy heights of FOUR coins! Oh my, oh my…

The History of the Piece of Eight

So, enough about buying the coins. What about the coins themselves? What exactly makes a Piece of Eight so special? Why is it called a Piece of Eight? What is it about this coin that has made it so famous for so long? Where did it come from? Where did it go? How long did it last?

The official Spanish name for the Piece of Eight was the Reale De a Ocho – Eight Reales. The Real (without the second ‘e’) was the Spanish currency from the 1300s all the way up to the middle of the 19th century! That said, the Piece of Eight or ‘Spanish Dollar’ as it’s also called, doesn’t date back that far. It shows up on the scene about 100-200 years later.

To make the Real easier to count and manage, when Ferdinand and Isabella conquered Spain in the 1490s, returning it to the realms of Christendom, they also reorganised Spain’s pre-existing monetary system. The basis for the new system was to be the 8 Reales coin.

Together, the Escudo (introduced later, in the mid-1500s) and the Real (one gold, one silver) formed the bedrock of this new currency system of the steadily-growing Kingdom (later, Empire) of Spain. They were minted in denominations of 1/2 Real, 1 Real, 2, Reales, 4 Reales, 8 Reales (the ‘Piece of Eight’), 1/2 Escudo (which was equal to one Piece of Eight), 1 Escudo (equal to two Pieces of Eight), 2 Escudo, 4 Escudo, and 8 Escudo (equal to 16 Pieces of Eight!). The 8 Escudo coin (the largest denomination coin manufactured by Spain) was also called a Doubloon.

Of all these coins, the Doubloon and the Piece of Eight became the most famous, the Doubloon for its large size and high gold content, the Piece of Eight for its near universal usage, large size, and impact on world history, which I’ll get to, further down…

Where did Pieces of Eight Come From?

Pieces of Eight were largely manufactured in the Spanish New World colonies such as Mexico, Peru, and Bolivia. The vast majority of the silver used to make Pieces of Eight was mined out of Potosi, a mountain in modern-day Bolivia which was almost completely solid silver. Thousands of tons of silver was mined out of Potosi and this silver was refined, melted and then stamped and shaped into Pieces of Eight (and their smaller denomination coins) to be shipped back to Spain in their millions.

As European powers started colonising North and South America in the 1500s and 1600s, a readily-available system of currency needed to be adopted so that transactions and trade could take place.

The 8 Reales coin, already available in abundance in South America, Mexico, and various parts of North America, became the ideal coin (and by extension, currency) for colonials to trade with. Some countries (such as Britain) actively tried to dissuade the colonists from using British (or other European-power) currency, and so foreign coins (ie: the Piece of Eight) were used instead. The Piece of Eight was almost universally accepted as currency because it was a known quantity. People knew that it was a large coin of proven silver content, and this made it ideal for trade.

Why is the Piece of Eight so Famous?

The Piece of Eight is famous for a number of reasons. The first reason is that the Piece of Eight is widely considered to be the world’s first global or international currency. From the date of its first minting until it finally went out of circulation (Ca. 1865), the Piece of Eight was accepted as currency almost all over the world. And I mean ALL over the world. Canada, America, Mexico, the Caribbean, Britain, Europe, Asia, Australia, Africa and China ALL used the Piece of Eight as a form of currency in one way or another at some point during the coin’s official run as legal tender.

Its large size, heavy weight, high silver content and easily-recognisable design, made the Piece of Eight easily accepted around the world, when no other currency was available. Even in China, where the locals probably couldn’t read (let alone understand) the Latin inscriptions around the coin’s edge, they knew silver when they saw it, and they accepted it as payment for their goods such as porcelain, tea and silk. To ensure that the coin was the real deal, Chinese merchants would test the coin by hammering a seal into the coin to check its silver content. These seals were (and still are) called ‘chops’, and the dents they left in the coins are called ‘chop-marks’. It’s not uncommon to find Pieces of Eight used in the China trade festooned with chop-marks as the coins moved from merchant-to-merchant, each one striking the coin to ensure that it was solid silver.

Pirates and Pieces of Eight

The second reason why Pieces of Eight are so famous is because of their indelible link to the Golden Age of Piracy, the Age of Colonisation, the Age of Exploration, the Age of Sail, and the Enlightenment movements of the 1600s, 1700s and early 1800s.

As I said, Pieces of Eight were largely manufactured in South America and Mexico. To get Pieces of Eight back to Spain, the Spanish government organised a system of treasure-convoys. Basically, what happened was that every few months (say, two or three times a year), a fleet of ships was sent from Spain to the Caribbean and South America. This fleet of ships carried food, water, essential supplies, trade-goods and other necessities and materials required by the colonists living in Spanish holdings in and around the Caribbean Sea.

Once the ships had been offloaded of their cargo, their holds were reloaded with thousands, millions of gold and silver coins – usually escudos, doubloons, Pieces of Eight, and their various smaller denominations – along with tons of gold and silver in the form of bars (ingots).

Thus-loaded, the ships, in convoy, would sail for home.

It was these treasure-bearing Spanish convoys that were a prime target for nominally enemy nations, such as the Netherlands, France, and especially – protestant England.

So, did pirates and privateers really attack Spanish treasure galleons or even entire fleets? Were fleets lost in storms and hurricanes during the voyage back to Spain?

Oh, you bet.

Spanish treasure fleets were lost to storms or hurricanes with surprising frequency. Fleets sank in 1622, 1708, 1715, 1733 and 1750, to name but a few! One ship which sank in the 1622 storm was the Nuestra Señora de Atocha (“Our Lady of Atocha”). The Atocha is in the Guinness Book of World Records as the most valuable shipwreck ever found – probably because it was loaded with 40 tons of gold and silver!

OK, but what about ships lost to epic sea-battles? Did those ever happen?

They certainly did. On the 8th of June, 1708, the Spanish treasure galleon the San Jose was blasted to kingdom come by English cannons during a battle during the War of the Spanish Succession (1701-1714). Eager to stop the treasure-loaded fleet from reaching Spain (and therefore funding the enemy) English warships under the command of Admiral Sir Charles Wager, attacked the Spanish off the coast of Colombia.

The San Jose (center-left) being blown to pieces by British cannonfire during the War of the Spanish Succession.

Three Spanish ships were destroyed in the engagement. One of them was the San Jose. It sank with hundreds of of gold and silver coins on board, as well as several pounds of jewels (mostly emeralds). It was discovered a few years ago, and as of 2017, salvage-operations are underway to retrieve the wreck’s vast fortune (calculated at being $17,000,000,000 – or $17 BILLION in American dollars, as of 2018).

So, that covers treasure lost in shipwrecks and to enemy action on the high seas, but were Pieces of Eight ever handled and used by actual, real-life pirates?

Absolutely.

Despite their ravenous, bloodthirsty image from popular culture such as television, films and books, pirates from the Golden Age of Piracy (roughly the 1620-1800) were surprisingly democratic and socially progressive creatures for ruthless, armed thugs. Surviving documents and books, written during the Golden Age of Piracy (largely during the late 1600s and early 1700s) state that pirates would vote and debate on almost anything and everything. To maintain order and efficiency and comfort at sea, pirate ships had lists of rules, and codes of conduct, which all pirates were expected to obey – and no, unlike in the ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’, they weren’t ‘more like guidelines’ – they were strictly adhered to!

One such regulation was the payment of health insurance! Pirates were entitled to a monetary payout (‘recompense’ as it says in the original documents) if they were injured in the course of a battle, but survived the engagement. Insurance levels varied, and depended on where you were injured, with different payouts stipulated for the loss of hands, arms, legs, fingers, or eyes.

So, how were these payments made? In Pieces of Eight, of course! And these could be very, very, VERY substantial payments. Loss of an eye was equal to 100 Pieces of Eight. Loss of an arm or leg could be up to 500 or 600 Pieces of Eight!

The Piece of Eight: The First Global Currency

Spain had colonies in Mexico, North America, South America, and the Far East. Spanish trade dominated the world from the late 1400s right up to the end of the 18th century. Because of this, the Piece of Eight was a coin that was used all over the world. Every continent permanently settled by mankind up to the start of the 19th century was touched by this coin in one way or another. It was the only coin which saw near-universal acceptance, being used as currency in Canada, America, Australia, Britain, much of South America and the Caribbean, Mexico, China, Africa and across Europe.

In America, the Piece of Eight was legal tender until 1857, when the first, truly American-made coins had been made in sufficient-enough quantities to replace it. In Australia, the Piece of Eight was legal tender until 1825. in China, the Piece of Eight was used as money up until roughly the time of the Opium Wars (1840s and 50s). In 1864, the Reale was finally retired as the Spanish unit of currency, to be replaced by the Peseta – the currency of Spain from 1869 until the country adopted the Euro, in 2001.

In China, merchants refused to trade with Europeans in anything except silver coinage. In this respect, the Piece of Eight was ideal as a system of currency. Its large size and high silver content made it highly attractive to the Chinese. But of course, the Chinese, not trusting these strange, white devils, would always test any silver coins given to them, before they accepted them as payment.

The 1779 dollar. Observe the areas circled in blue. The symbols hammered into the silver are chop marks made by Chinese merchants.

This was done by hammering a punch into the face of the coin to test its silver content, and also to mark that the coin had been independently assayed by a Chinese merchants to attest its authenticity. A coin with loads of chop-marks hammered all over it was taken to be a coin of proven silver-content, and was therefore acceptable for use as payment.

In Australia, the Piece of Eight was the nation’s first official currency after the island was colonised in the 1780s. Early in Australia’s history, rum, tobacco and other foodstuffs were used as barter, but when this became unsustainable, the governor of the day decided that foreign coins of known value would be appropriate for use as currency within the colony and a list of foreign coins was compiled. Only the coins on the list could be used as currency within Australia. These coins became known as Proclamation Coins, since they were the coins mentioned specifically in the proclamation from Government House.

The problem with these coins is that they could still be used OUTSIDE of Australia. This meant that loads of these coins were leaving the island on merchant ships which sailed to Australia to do trade with the colony. They sold their stuff to the colonists, who paid them in the valuable coinage, and then the sailors sailed off, leaving even fewer coins in the settlement.

To stop this, the next governor down the line decided that ONE type of coin would be used: The Spanish Silver Dollar or the Piece of Eight. He bought a whole heap of these coins (thousands of them) from Britain and had them shipped to Australia.

To make the coins worthless outside of Australia, he had them punched out. The larger ‘donut’ on the outside was called the “Holey Dollar” and the punched out nugget in the center became known as the ‘Dump’. The Holey Dollar was worth 5/- (five shillings), and the dump was worth 15d (fifteen pence).

In 1825, this practice was discontinued when a law was passed stipulating that ONLY British currency would be used within Australia. As a result, all the Holey Dollars and Dumps were swept up and tossed into the melter’s pot. Today, a Piece of Eight can be easily purchased online, although prices can vary wildly. By comparison, a Holey Dollar and Dump are worth THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS each, because so few of them survive today.

How Was a Piece of Eight Made?

The earliest Pieces of Eight were simply made by hacking off chunks of silver from cast bars (ingots) of silver, shaving them down until they were the prerequisite weight, and then punching the pre-carved designs (engraved into metal die-punches) into the coins, using a punch (like a stamp) and a hammer to apply the force. In this way, coins were quite literally ‘hand-struck’, and handmade, one after the other, piecemeal. Once one side of the coin had been struck, it was simply flipped over and the opposing die-punch was struck to the other side.

Coins such as these are called ‘cob’ coins and their crude methods of manufacture meant that they were often open to forgery. To have any faith in the money, even if it was solid gold or silver, merchants would routinely weigh coins to ensure that the cob in question was of the correct weight, since it wasn’t unknown for unscrupulous dealers to hack off the corners of silver coins and pass them off as whole ones, and then use the scavenged silver for something else (this practice was called ‘clipping’ the coin, since you clipped a bit off the edge each time).

The milled edges of the Pieces of Eight, an anti-clipping measure. The worn rim on the 1779 coin (left) explains why it’s a whole gram lighter than what a perfect coin would weigh.

By the 1700s, more advanced methods of coin-manufacture, similar to how coins are made today, started being devised, and anti-tampering measures such as decorated, milled edges started being introduced. With a milled or decorated edge to the coin, it was immediately obvious if it had been tampered with, thereby reducing the risk of someone wanting to ‘clip’ the coin for its silver-content.

Unless the Piece of Eight you own is EXTREMELY old (pre-1700s), it’s likely to be a milled coin rather than a cob coin.

The Anatomy of a Piece of Eight

By the 1700s, the general design of the Piece of Eight started becoming more or less standardised, with a few minor changes as the years progressed.

A typical Piece of Eight from the 1700s up through to the 1820s and 30s consisted of, on one side, the name of the reigning Spanish monarch of the day, the year of minting, and the Latin phrase “Dei Gratia” (“God’s Grace”, or “By the Grace of God”).

the other side of the coin had a crown at the top, and beneath that, a coat of arms. These consisted of castles and lion rampants set into the quarters, The Fleur de Lys of the House of Bourbon, in the middle, and beneath, a pomegranate. To either side are pillars, signifying the Pillars of Hercules, which corresponded to the Rock of Gibraltar (northern pillar) and the northwestern-most point of the African continent. Since antiquity, the Pillars of Hercules symbolised the entrance to the Mediterranean Sea.

For centuries, the Pillars of Hercules, guarding the entrance to the mighty Atlantic Ocean, were seen as the gateway to the unknown. What existed beyond them was pure conjecture. The Latin phrase “Non Plus Ultra” (“Nothing Further Beyond“) became widely associated with the pillars.

The Spanish coat of arms and the Pillars of Hercules on the coin.

This all changed in the 1490s when Christopher Columbus discovered the New World! Suddenly, there WAS something beyond the Pillars of Hercules, and with daring and tenacity, that something could be reached, colonised, explored, and exploited!

To this end, the old motto of “Non Plus Ultra” was changed to “Plus Ultra” (“Further Beyond“). It became the national motto of the Kingdom of Spain, and was added in swirling scrolls around the Pillars of Hercules on the Piece of Eight, to indicate that the wealth, power and influence of the Spanish started in Spain, and spread “Plus Ultra” – “Further Beyond” than the eyes of man could possibly see!

You will need an extremely powerful magnifying glass (and a Piece of Eight of the right vintage in good condition) but the microscopic letters are visible on the scrolls around the pillars.

Finally, around the coat of arms and the Pillars of Hercules are the words:

“HISPAN. ET. IND. REX.” (“King of Spain and the Indies“), the mint-marks (in my case, an LM for Lima, and an M for Mexico City), the monetary designation of ‘8R‘ (8 Reales), and finally, the initials of the assay master overseeing production of the coins.

The Influence of the Piece of Eight

Not for nothing is the Piece of Eight, arguably the most famous coin in the world. The Chinese Yuan, the American Dollar, the Mexican Peso and countless other currencies around the world, all owe SOMETHING to the Piece of Eight. For example, when the Piece of Eight was finally pulled from circulation in the ‘States in 1857, its official replacement was the American Silver Dollar. This was a coin which was 38mm across, weighed 27g, and which was 90% solid silver.

Do those measurements sound familiar? They should – they’re the EXACT same ones used by the Piece of Eight, on which the silver dollar was based!

An American Silver Dollar (left, from 1891) next to the stack of Pieces of Eight (right). Observe the size. Not only that, they’re almost exactly the same thickness and weight. They’re also almost the same silver content.

The American system of quarters, nickels and dimes are also directly descended from the Piece of Eight. The idea of the Half Dollar and Quarter Dollar come from the original practice of quite literally – chopping up a Piece of Eight into halves, and quarters – and sometimes – even eighths! You could literally have an eighth of a Piece of Eight! These cut up silver coins were part of the basis of loose change today.

If you want more proof that the Piece of Eight is indeed, the most famous and influential coin in the world, then have you ever considered the dollar-sign? You know. This thing: “$”.

Look closely at a Piece of Eight. Here…

Notice the scrolls wrapped around the pillars of Hercules? See anything familiar there? The scrolls around the pillars was what led to the symbol for the dollar – the S with the two lines through it. Such is the influence of the Piece of Eight that MILLIONS of people use that symbol every day without even realising where it comes from.

Fake Reales – How to Tell Fake Coins from Real Coins

I openly admit to being a novice and casual coin-collector. I’ve only been doing this for two or three years at most. I like collecting coins with some sort of historical significance, either personal, or global. It was for this reason that I was attracted to seeking out Spanish Reale coins. The problem is, reales are (or can be) very expensive. Very, very, VERY expensive. Prices of $2,000-$3,000+, isn’t unheard of, for exceptionally rare or old examples. That’s why when I saw the price for this coin (which was far, far, FAR less than $2,000), I immediately became both interested, and wary of it.

So, if something seems too good to be true, and you want to make sure it IS true, how do you safeguard yourself against buying a dud coin?

There are a few quick-and-dirty ways.

Magnet Test

The first and easiest way to figure out if a coin is fake is to do a magnet-test. A steel coin purporting to be silver will snap to a magnet like flies to a cowpat. By comparison, a silver coin will not (or will not as readily) stick to a magnet. Some might, due to impurities in the metal, but it should be a slow or weak adherence.

A pair of rare-earth magnets (which are EXTREMELY POWERFUL) will do the trick. Easily purchased at your local car-supplies, or boating/fishing stores. BE SURE TO STORE THESE MAGNETS CAREFULLY – do NOT put them near electronics, mechanical watches, computers, phones or anything else like that – the extremely powerful magnetic field will damage them. Store them somewhere far away from other items, ideally in a padded cardboard or wooden box.

However, super-powerful magnets alone are not enough. You can get coins which are made of cheap, silver-like alloys (nickel-silver, for example) which will react the same way as real coins. So, what else can you do?

Weight and See!

The next test is to weigh the coin. A small (but highly-accurate) digital pocket jeweler’s scale costs very little. A few tens of dollars at your local jewelry-supply shop (where I bought mine) or online. Take it with you if you go bargain-hunting or antiquing regularly. Of course, for this to work – you need to know what the coin is SUPPOSED to weigh, in the first place. Perhaps keep a note of the coins you’re after, and their correct weights (easily found online from numismatic websites) with the scale for when you take it out with you. Then, simply weigh the coin. A coin which is SIGNIFICANTLY over-or-underweight is likely to be a fake. A coin which is exactly the correct weight, or slightly under (within one gram) is likely to be real.

For example, a Spanish Piece of Eight weighs 27.07g. That’s if you can find a PERFECT one. Very few Spanish reales are perfect. That being the case, expect SOME loss in weight. Instead of 27.07, it might be 27.00. Or 26.3, or 26.7, or 26.5, or 26.25. Unless the coin is missing a LOT of metal, it shouldn’t ever dip down into the 25g-range. If it does, approach with caution.

Unless you are absolutely certain that you can spot a fake – stay well away from any suspect coins like that. A fake Piece of Eight will weigh significantly less than 27, or even 26 grams. They can drop all the way down to 22, 25, 23 grams, etc. Any coin registering that sort of weight is a HUGE red-flag. Put it down, and walk away slowly.

Wear and Tear

Last but not least, check the physical condition of a coin. Any coin that is too perfect or too imperfect may be suspect. The exceptions to this are if the coin is really, really old, or if it’s shipwreck-salvage (yes, you can buy shipwreck coins, and it’s perfectly legal to do so). A genuine antique coin will have genuine antique wear and flaws and damage on it. Rubbed lettering, faded imagery, dents, cracks, dings – in some cases, they’ll even have chunks taken out of them. Some will have their corners or edges completely rubbed-off from decades and centuries of handling. Details like shields, facial-features like eyes, noses, mouths, hair, clothing, lettering, etc, should all show even wear. Milling or edge-decorations should show consistency.

While antique coins were handmade (or made with crude machinery) they nonetheless had to be perfect – or as near-perfect as the assayer and mint could make them. That being the case, any obvious flaws (like half the date falling off the bottom of the coin, when you can clearly see the edge-milling being intact) should serve as red flags for fake coins.

On the Edge

Another way to check whether a coin is fake or not, is to check the edging around the coin’s rim. A Piece of Eight has very distinctive circle-and-square patterning around its edge. This edging – properly called milling – was invented centuries ago as an anti-fraud device. By decorating the edges of coins, it became possible to see whether the coin had been defaced or cut up or been the victim of ‘clipping’ (where minute fragments of the coin’s precious silver had been scraped or filed off).

Fake Spanish dollars will sometimes (but not always) have markedly fake milling around the sides. If you ever see a Spanish dollar with modern corrugated milling on it – run away! Because they never did them like that! Ever!

Fine Details

Another way to figure out if a coin is fake is to compare it against a real coin. Obviously this isn’t always possible to do, but there are certain things you can look out for. Check things like character-spacing and sizing in letters, evenness of stamping, the crispness or clarity of the imagery used on the coin, and the fineness of the edges and rims.

Fake coins won’t bother with things like creases in robes, curls or strands of hair, detail to eyes and mouths on faces, and things like that. Some do, but most fraudsters are just banking on the fact that someone will be too excited by the prospect of getting a rare or famous coin, and will buy the coin too fast to examine it properly, allowing the forger to make a quick buck on a scam. Take as much time as you need to look at suspect coins.

The End of an Era

The Piece of Eight, the coin that ruled the world for three and a half CENTURIES finally came to an end in the 1860s, when in 1869, the Spanish Peseta replaced it as Spain’s official currency. By this point in time the Piece of Eight was already being phased out in other countries around the world anyway, and within a few years, its use had ended completely.

The coin was taken out of circulation and a piece of silver that once ruled the world and had circumnavigated it countless times and had visited every continent permanently settled by man, was suddenly made obsolete, to survive now only in antiques shops, private collections and in the fantasy of books, films and pirate lore…