One of the first issues in the Silver Shield Collection was a design that highlighted the high toll on human life that precious metals and natural resource exploitation have had in the past 500 years. The North and South American continents were home to flourishing empires long before colonial powers arrived.
The 1 oz Pieces of Eight Silver Shield Round bears the engraving of a phrase Praedatum in Mundo on the obverse face. This translates into English as A Predatory World. Mankind has always struggled against nature for dominance as a species on the planet, and sometimes these violent clashes pit mankind against one another.
A prominent feature of the obverse of the 1 oz Pieces of Eight Silver Shield Round is the collection of eight swords run through the Skull in the center of the design. Each of these swords represents the impact of colonialism in the Americas by a different power. Represented in these swords are Spain, England, France, Portugal, Denmark, Netherlands, Belgium, and the United States.
The Spanish Empire was among the first to bring devastation to the New World. Conquistadors were attracted to the continent not only by the new lands, but also by the vast resources of gold and silver already exploited by indigenous empires such as the Aztec Empire of Central America.
On the reverse of the 1 oz Pieces of Eight Silver Shield Round is the image of the Silver Shield design. No longer in use on newer issues in this collection, the Silver Shield design features an eight-pointed sun in the center with waves of sunshine emanating from the center. Engravings around the outer edges identify the series along with the weight, purity, and metal content of the round.
