coins, did you ever know that the piece of eight was the grandfather of our own dollar, and was the forerunner of the metric system, and that our symbol for the dollar came from the sign used to designate the piece of eight?” “No, indeed,” declared Fred. “Do tell us about that.” “In the old days,” smiled Mr. Bickford, as he continued, “nearly all countries used the piece of eight as the standard of exchange and barter. It was used in the American colonies, but after the United States were formed it was decided to mint a standard coin for the new republic. As the piece of eight was the recognized standard, the new coin was made of the same weight and value to avoid trouble and confusion in trade and commerce. All the accounts had been kept in pieces of eight, the symbol for which was a figure eight with a line through it like this, $, and which may have originally been a figure eight with a line through it or, as some claim, a conventional Pillar of Hercules such as appeared on the pieces of eight, and so the accountants and clerks found it easier to use the same symbol with the addition of another line to designate dollars than to evolve a new symbol. So you see our dollar sign is really a modification of the old sign for the piece of eight.” “Gosh! I’ll be more interested in dollar signs now,” declared Jack, “and every time I see one I’ll remember what a piece of eight was.” “As I was saying,” went on his father, “the agreements and papers were drawn up, a captain was chosen, the buccaneers made forays into the Spanish territory and stole what cattle and hogs and other supplies they required, and the ships set forth to capture Spanish prizes and raid the towns on the Spanish Main.