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Historical note: Dollar

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15 years 1 month ago #514 by LITAS


The word dollar evolves from the German thaler (velley in English), that was the name given to the first large-sized European silver coin. Designed as a substitute for the gold florin,the coin originated in the Tyrol in 1484. This coin became very popular during 16-th century that many other countries struck similar pieces, giving them name derived from thaler.

In the Netherlands the coin was called riksdaaler, in Denmark rigsdaler, in Italy tallero, in Poland talar, in France jocandale, in Russia jefimoh. All these names are abbreviations of joachimsthaler.

Until the discovery of the great silver deposits in Mexico and South American mines, the mint with the greatest output of large silver coins was at Joachimsthal in Bohemia.

The Spanish dollar, or a piece of eight, was widely used in the British American colonies. It was only natural, therefore, that the word dollar was adopted officially as the standard monetary unit of the United States by Congress on July 6, 1785.

John Armonas

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