Dollar: Encyclopedia II - Dollar - Numismatic history

Dollar - Numismatic history

The name is related to the historic currencies Tolar in Bohemia, Thaler or Taler in Germany, Daalder in the Netherlands and Daler in Sweden, Denmark, and Norway. The name thaler (from Thal, or nowadays usually Tal, "valley") originally came from the German Guldengroschen ("great gulden", being of silver but equal in value to a gold gulden) coins minted from the silver from a rich mine at Joachimsthal (St. Joachim's Valley) in Bohemia (then part of the Habsburg Empire). The name "Spanish dollar" was used for a Spanish silver coin, the peso, an eight-real coin, which was widely circulated during the 18th century in the Spanish colonies in the New World. The use of the Spanish dollar and the Maria Theresa thaler as legal tender for the early United States is the reason for the name of the nation's currency. The word dollar was in use in the English language for the thaler for about 200 years before the American Revolution. Spanish dollars, or "pieces of eight" as they were called, were in circulation in the Thirteen Colonies that became the United States, and were legal tender in Virginia.

The dollar was also in use in Scotland during the 17th century, and there is a claim that it was invented at the University of St Andrews. Until decimalisation in 1971 a half crown coin in the United Kingdom was popularly refered to as half a dollar doubtlessly stemming from the similarity of a crown (issued latterly only as a commemerative coin) resembling a United States silver dollar in size and also in value for a number of years.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Numismatic history", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki