During the American Revolution and the early years of our Republic, many foreign coins circulated in the colonies and states. In addition to locally produced coins and tokens, trade with other neighboring countries, Islands, and territories brought in specimens from many lands. The British, French, Spanish, Dutch, and Danish, all had colonies or Islands which were trading partners and coins from all of these places and more continued to circulate widely. In addition to the coins, as minted, it was common practice to cut Spanish 8 Reales coins into halves and quarters and eighths in pie-shaped form for use as smaller change. The Spanish 8 Reales coin was the forerunner of the United States Dollar. A 1/4 piece of the coin was the equal to our Quarter Dollar and the 1/8 piece would be worth 12 1/2 cents in the United States.