Spanish escudo

When Spanish Escudo there were two different kinds of coins to a coin the gold standard until 1833, on the other hand a decimal silver coin that was minted 1864-68.

Under Charles I.

The Spanish King Carlos I in 1516, when Charles V was from 1506 ruler of the Habsburg dominions and German emperors. He had borrowed heavily especially with the Fuggers. The Ducado had been steadily deteriorating. It was found in 1537 the need for currency reform. Instead of Ducados that no longer exist but pronounced as unit of account remained, should be embossed in gold coronas i escudos. On the Castilian Mark Gold 22 Karat (ie, 11/12 fine) came 68 escudos each worth 350 maravedis. For the same weight of the coins of fineness was therefore reduced by 7 ½ %.

Under Philip II

The value of the escudo was raised to 400 maravedis by Decree ( Pragmatica ) by Philip II on 23 November 1566. It now also larger pieces were minted. The Doppelescudo ( Doblón ) was in Europe called gun and a model for the Louis d'or. The 8- escudo piece ( onza de oro ) was the most frequent Spanish gold coin and is a doubloon (= 4 guns ) are known. It corresponded to 16 silver peso duro ( 51.122 g fine silver ), two " pieces of eight" which were in the course of time, especially after the introduction of machines stamping in 1732, the dominant trade coin in East Asia.

18th century

After the reform laws in 1728 and 1730, which required, among other things verschneidungssichere coins, the fineness of the onza de oro remained at 22 carats.

From 1772 there was a deterioration 901 /1000 sec. On June 25, 1786 was issued secret instructions that the escudo was to stamp out only from 21 -carat gold ( 875/1000 ), actually worse metal was still in use: Tests show 869.8 / 1000 after 1800 then only 864.6 / 1000th

1850-1868

The decimal Real ( de Vellón ) in 1850 to the Spanish currency, the Catalan peseta was in the ratio 1 Pta. = 4 Reales exchanged. The next changeover took place in 1864 was introduced as the new decimal Escudo. It was 1 escudo = 10 Reales = 100 centimes = 1000 Millesimas.

1868, after the first abolition of the monarchy it came to the introduction of the Spanish peseta, with a ratio of 2 ½ Pts. was converted per Escudo. Escudos circulated until 1872.