Spanish COins
- Used materials found in the new world and were mined between 1536 and 1556
- Conquistadors used the natives for slave labor to mine the silver and mint the Reales
- Coins were hand made and were punched into a design with the pillars of Heracles on one side and the Hapsburg coat of arms on the other
- The Mexico City Mint was in operation for about two hundred and fifty years before the first United States Mint was established.
- These coins were legal as currency in the US until 1857
- Shows Spanish technology in comparison to the Aztec technology
- Spanish and Aztecs both had currencies so none were above another (except that the Spanish used metal)