Special List 174 - Richard C. Ramer Old & Rare Books
Special List 174 - Richard C. Ramer Old & Rare Books
Special List 174 - Richard C. Ramer Old & Rare Books
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special list <strong>174</strong> 7<br />
Manuscript Record of Silver<br />
Received from Brazil, India, and Macao in 1720<br />
3. [BRAZIL, MACAU AND INDIA.] Manuscript account of silver<br />
(“prata lavrada”) received in 1720 from Brazil, India, and Macau. On<br />
paper, in Portuguese. 1720. Folio (31 x 21 cm.), disbound. Written in ink,<br />
in a tidy hand of the early eighteenth-century. Fine. (1 l.) $600.00<br />
A manuscript list of silver pieces received from Brazil, India, and Macau in 1720.<br />
Pataca was the name the Portuguese used for the Spanish peso, worth 8 reales (hence<br />
known in the English-speaking world as a “piece of eight”). Because it was so frequently<br />
minted in Mexico, the pataca was eventually also known in Portugal as the pataca mexicana.<br />
Rather than being minted like a proper coin, each pataca was a lump of silver of a<br />
specified weight (27.468 g), flattened and impressed with a hammer. Although they were<br />
useful for tallying amounts so the government could take its cut, patacas tended to be<br />
irregularly shaped, hence ideal subjects for clipping or counterfeiting.
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