Pirate Ship Belt Buckle with a Piece of Eight Spanish Bullion

To make this first I painted a sunset with a pirate ship on canvas then added it to a silver belt buckle blank with a skeleton key, cogs, and a piece of Eight (Spanish Bullion). When I was done I coated it with resin.

This is about 3.34” long x 2.45” wide and 0.21” thick

The base is silver, Made in the USA.

Thank you for buying my art and supporting our small business.

Have a fun and wonderful day,

Rae

Borrowed in part from “Sea History 149, Winter 2014-15”

Piece of Eight:

Colonists in British North America were not allowed to mint money of their own, even though they often ran out of English coins to use in day-to-day business. Instead, they resorted to using whatever coinage they could get their hands on. The most common coin used during this time was the Spanish silver dollar, worth eight “Reales,” a unit of currency in Spain.

Back then, coins were valued by their actual weight in gold or silver, not just on what they looked like. Spanish coins were preferred over other currencies because they had a milled, or patterned edge, which prevented dishonest traders from shaving slivers off of the coins without being detected.

Unlike today, cutting money was not illegal. In fact, it was expected that to make change people literally cut the coins into eight pieces, or “bits.” Hence, the British called the Spanish dollar a “Piece of Eight” (a coin worth eight pieces, or bits), and something valued at “two bits” cost a quarter of a dollar.

Americans used foreign money until 1857 when the United States government passed a law forbidding it

More about us:

We are full-time artists with extensive backgrounds in the high-tech industry, which helps us with the technical aspects of our artwork and glass blowing. We love to incorporate science into our functional art pieces.

Our small organic farm overlooks the Bitterroot Mountains with several buildings dedicated to our work-from-home lifestyle. The Steampunk Shop is Rae’s creative space; the Torch Shop is where we blow our glass, and the Big Shop is for general mad science and Bill's electronics lab.

Since 1993, our work has produced glass art, including hand-blown contemporary marbles, hummingbird feeders, and Pixie Orb ornaments.

We are spreading love and harmony - one piece of art at a time.