DOUBLOON

DOUBLOON was a Spanish gold piece, so called because its value was double that of a pistole (the vernacular term for the Spanish gold coin, equal to two escudos). Its value varied from $8.25 in the period 1730–1772, $8.00 during the American Revolution, and later to about $7.84 from 1786 to 1848. It was freely used in the West Indies and South American trade, and southerners in the colonial period often had their cash assets in Spanish gold.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Brock, Leslie V. The Currency of the American Colonies, 1700–1764: A Study in Colonial Finance and Imperial Relations. New York: Arno Press, 1975.

Carl L.Cannon/a. r.

See alsoCurrency and Coinage ; Money ; Pieces of Eight .

doubloon (hist.) Sp. gold coin, orig. double of the pistole. XVII. — F. doublon or its source Sp. doblón, augm. of doble ( = F. double) DOUBLE. See -OON.

dou·bloon / dəˈbloōn/ • n. hist. a Spanish gold coin.