File:8 reales of Carlos III (edge) (FindID 407654).jpg

English: Fragment of a silver 8 reales, or 'bit' or 'Piece of Eight', of Carlos III (1759-1788) or Carlos IV (1788-1808) of Spain, but with this particular obverse and reverse, it must date to c.1772-1790. The obverse retains 17, but the rest of the date is missing, and the reverse is stamped with the place name TORTOLA, in the British Virgin Islands. The edge of the coin has a distinctive pattern of open rectangles alternating with annulets.

One of the most interesting and unusual series of coins resulted from the shortage of currency in the islands of the West Indies in the latter part of the eighteenth and the early nineteenth centuries. It became the practice here to counterstamp coins of various countries to make them legal tender on the islands or, alternatively, to cut them to satisfy the need for small change which in most instances the country owning the island neglected to supply. Owing to the close proximity of these islands to the American continent, it is not surprising that the coin most commonly used for this practice was the eight-real piece, together with its fractions, minted in New Spain, although French and Portuguese coins were also used. The coins were originally brought to the islands by traders or the pirates who were often based in the Caribbean, Jamaica being particularly favoured by the latter.

During the seventeenth century the Spanish dollar of eight reales was generally accepted at 4s 6d, but in some instances it was reckoned at Ss or equal to one English crown. The dollars were divided into fractions, the denominations of which varied from island to island, this being due to the fact that each island's accounts were kept in the currency of the country to which it belonged; Britain, France, Spain or Holland. Usually, the real or `bit' as it was known, was worth between 7ld and 9d, but in some cases it was worth very much less than this, there sometimes being as many as thirteen bits to one dollar. Some of the commonest of the counterstamped coins are those that were produced for use in Tortola in the Leeward Island group, sometimes known as `the Saints'.

Cayon (2005) illustrates a similar example of the complete coin of Carlos III on page 1123, No.37, which is dated to 1777.