Coins are historically known to have been cut to make small change. The term “pieces of eight” is a reference to dividing a Spanish colonial American silver 8-reale coin into pieces to make smaller denominations.
A recent discovery appears to be evidence that coins were occasionally cut into pieces to make smaller denominations as far back as the dawn of the use of coins as money. The silver coin found at an Israel Antiquities Authority excavation in the Judean Hills has a square stamp on the obverse, with a punch mark on the reverse. The coin dates from the Persian period (6th–5th centuries B.C.) and was found at the site of a four-room house from the First Temple Period in what is today Israel.
The house was discovered during an expansion of…
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World Coin News (Digital) - 1 Issue, March 2024