Museum objects
0 shown · 5 cited but not shown. An image only appears here if it is openly
licensed and confirmed to depict the object we claim. Otherwise we cite it and link you to
the museum — we would rather show you nothing than show you the wrong thing.
◈
NU.68.159.2418
Smithsonian National Museum of American History
image failed verification (wrong object) — cited, not shown
View it at the museum ↗
Chop-Marked 8 Reales Coin
Smithsonian National Museum of American History · NU.68.159.2418 · 1805
A Spanish colonial silver 8-reales coin stamped repeatedly with Chinese merchant chop marks, proof it circulated across Asia.
Every chop mark on this coin is a stranger, somewhere on the other side of the world, deciding they trusted Camila's silver enough to stamp their own name on it too.
◈
MS. Arch. Selden. A. 1
Bodleian Library, University of Oxford
image failed verification (wrong object) — cited, not shown
View it at the museum ↗
Codex Mendoza
Bodleian Library, University of Oxford · MS. Arch. Selden. A. 1 · c. 1541
An Aztec pictorial and Spanish-annotated manuscript detailing tribute, economy, and daily life in early colonial Mexico.
Before the peso, there was this — a record of an entire economy of tribute and trade that the Spanish silver dollar would eventually replace and erase.
◈
Florentine Codex digital edition
Getty Research Institute (digital edition)
image failed verification (wrong object) — cited, not shown
View it at the museum ↗
Florentine Codex
Getty Research Institute (digital edition) · Florentine Codex digital edition · 1575-1577
A monumental illustrated ethnographic work documenting Aztec culture, compiled under Spanish friar Bernardino de Sahagún.
This is the last full portrait of a world before Camila's silver economy swallowed it whole.
◈
UNESCO Site ref 420
UNESCO World Heritage Site / Casa Nacional de la Moneda
image failed verification (wrong object) — cited, not shown
View it at the museum ↗
Casa Nacional de Moneda de Potosí
UNESCO World Heritage Site / Casa Nacional de la Moneda · UNESCO Site ref 420 · founded 1572
The colonial mint building in Potosí, Bolivia, where much of the silver that became Spanish colonial pesos was struck.
This building turned mountain silver into global money — and worked its laborers to death doing it. Camila carries that weight in every coin she represents.
◈
Referenced in Banco de México archive
Banco de México numismatic collection
image failed verification (wrong object) — cited, not shown
View it at the museum ↗
Macuquina (Cob Coinage)
Banco de México numismatic collection · Referenced in Banco de México archive · 16th-18th century
Roughly hand-cut irregular silver coins produced in colonial Spanish American mints, predecessors to the milled 8-reales.
Crude, uneven, hand-cut — but every irregular edge on these coins carried real silver value across oceans and empires.
Primary sources
The documents themselves. We link and quote — that is citation, and it needs no licence.
Banco de México Numismatic History
official_publication · Ongoing · Banco de México · Banco de México
Official central bank publication detailing the history of Mexican coinage from colonial times to present.
Mexico's central bank's own official history of its money, from Spanish colonial coins to today.
Wikipedia: Macuquina
encyclopedia_entry · Ongoing · Wikipedia contributors · Wikipedia
Reference entry on hand-cut colonial Spanish American coinage.
A general explainer on the rough, hand-cut coins made in early colonial Spanish America.
UNESCO World Heritage Listing: City of Potosí
official_record · 1987 · UNESCO · UNESCO
Official heritage listing documenting the historical and economic significance of Potosí's silver mines and mint.
The United Nations' official record explaining why this silver-mining city matters to world history.
Florentine Codex Digital Edition
digital_archive · 2020s digitization · Getty Research Institute · Getty Research Institute
Full digitized and translated edition of the 16th-century ethnographic manuscript on Aztec life.
A free online version of a huge illustrated book about Aztec life just before Spanish silver economy took hold.
Codex Mendoza Digital Facsimile
digital_archive · Ongoing · Bodleian Library, University of Oxford · Bodleian Library
Digitized version of the Aztec tribute and economy manuscript.
An online version of an old illustrated book showing how the Aztec economy worked before Spanish coins arrived.
Where this money travelled
Camila's silver peso was struck in Mexico City and Potosí, then sailed the Manila Galleon route to become the first truly global currency, trusted from Boston to Beijing.
Mexico City (Casa de Moneda)19.4326, -99.1332
Potosí, Bolivia-19.5836, -65.7531
Manila, Philippines14.5995, 120.9842
Acapulco16.8531, -99.8237
Fujian, China26.0789, 117.9874
What we don't know
The page no competitor will build.
- 5 of 5 objects on this page are cited but not shown — either the rights are not cleared, or we could not verify that an available image really depicts the object. We would rather show you nothing than show you the wrong thing.
- 1 source(s) here are Wikipedia — a tertiary source. It is a pointer, not our evidence. These are being replaced with the primary documents Wikipedia itself cites.
- 2 link(s) on this page are currently unreachable and are being replaced.
