William Nesbit, age 8, of South Portland, Maine, for his question:

What are pieces Of eight?

Doubloons and pieces of eight are coins that make us think of bloodthirsty pirates on the Spanish Main. The doubloon was a golden Spanish coin and the piece of eight was silver. Pieces of eight were minted in Mexico City around l732, more than 200 years ago. And they may have been the ancestors of our dollars of today.

Some people call a quarter two bits or a two bit piece. There are four quarters in a dollar and if each quarter had two pieces there would be eight pieces in a dollar. There were eight sections in the old Spanish piece of eight and some people claim that the sections could be broken apart to make change.  Some people also claim that our curly dollar sign began as a figure eight. They say it was the sign for the old silver coin of eight pieces, each shaped like a wedge of pie.