‘Piece of Eight’ Coin Found in an Old Nashville Cemetery

An old 1776 Spanish coin was found in a Nashville Cemetery when a sunken footstone was being raised for restoration purposes.

The location and type of coin - once commonly known as a "piece of eight" or, for Western TV watchers, a "peso" - makes the discovery rather unique.

However, don’t expect future treasure announcements to emerge from the cemetery. Not only is it illegal to go about treasure hunting in cemeteries, but doing so would be a waste of time.

The coin was a random find like that of a penny on the street, and likely accidentally dropped and lost many years back just as randomly.

Nevertheless, an interesting single coin find worthy of discussion that Tennessean.com brought to light in their article: 1776 coin turns up in Nashville cemetery.

What you may find most interesting in the article is a small history lesson of sorts about old coinage terms, like "reales", "pieces of 8", "wedges" and "two bits".

Go check it out!