Spain and all of its American colonies never used a dollar anymore than the Brits did. The basic Spanish silver coin the 1700’s and 1800’s was the ‘real’. Following is part of the article published at ‘columnarios.com’ explaining it. In reading the stories of Sharpe in Spain, every time I read ‘dollar’ I wonder where you got that information–probably from my ignorant fellow USA citizens. “Two-bits, four-bits, six-bits and eight-bits make reference to the eight-reales silver coin of New Spain and Mexico. It is also called piece of eight and circulated in the English Colonies and freely in the USA following the Revolutionary War. As a matter of fact, the eight reales coin was legal tender in the United States until 1857 and was the world’s most used coin at one time. It is the renowned piece of eight that became part of the Spanish Main pirate lore.” The complete article (“Two bits, four bits, six bits, eight”) should still be available at ‘columnarios.com’. If not I can send it to you. You have helped me learn a lot of war history of England, France, Portugal and Spain, but disappoint me when it comes to names of coins, persons, etc. English has a perfectly good name for marquis (French?) which is very similar to the Spanish and if you had used ‘Marqués de XX’ no one would have doubted he was a marquess. You did use ‘Marquesa XX’ though. I know many of your Sharpe books were written years ago, but they would read better corrected. The same goes for Spanish names and the use of accents. Spanish only uses the acute accent (´) not the grave one (`). “Don” is only used with first names much like “Sir” in English–never with surnames. Sir Winston and not Sir Churchill. Will keep reading you, at least until I finish the Sharpe series. Leon F McClellan