Dollar’ Derived From 16th Century

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30390, 14 March 1964, Page 10

Dollar’ Derived From 16th Century

JF the choice of “dollar” as the name of the new currency unit disappoints those who wished for something different or distinctively New Zealand in flavour, it may satisfy those with a feeling for tradition or those who have other associations for the name. The songsters may sing, “Take a silver dollar . . .” our diplomats will have to brush up their “dollar diplomacy”; fishermen may seek the dollar fish common to the Atlantic coast of the United States—a dollar seems rather cheap for ours. The naturalists may know the dollar bird, an Australian species with a large white spot on the wing or the dollar leaf, the large false Wintergreen. German Coin Those who worship the “almighty dollar” enough could even live with it permanently—there is a village in Clackmannanshire called Dollar. The derivation of the word goes back to the sixteenth century. A modified form of thaler or taler which, with the various forms (daler, dalar, daalder, tallero, etc.), dollar is said to be a shortened form of joachimsthaler. “Joachimsthaler” was the

name given to a coin intended to be the silver equivalent of the golden guider, a coin current in Germany from the 14th century. In 1516 a rich silver mine was discovered in Joachimthal (Joachim’s dale), a mining district of Bohemia, where the Counts of Schlick obtained the silver from which they struck the coin in 1518. The taler was actually instituted in 1484 by Duke Sigismund of Tirol, but the Joachimsthaler gave it its name. Many silver coins were struck, bearing the effigy of St. Joachim, an Italian mystic of the 12th century. The tlialer supplied a popular demand and it was rapidly adopted in the German States, in France as the ecu, in Italy as the scudo, in England as the crown and in the Scandinavian countries as the daler.

The Imperial dollar was known as the reichstaler (Danish rigsdaler, English rixdollar). It was the common European denomination from the 16th century to the middle of the 19th century. The first use of the word dollar in English was as applied to this silver thaler. The Spanish piece-of-eight (real) was also commonly referred to as a dollar; it was used both in the SpanishAmerican and in the English colonies and was known in the monetary world almost before America was discovered.

In England, during the Peninsular War, Spanish dollars circulated freely and were

given official recognition by being stamped with a small head of George 111. In 1804 the Bank of England issued a dollar. For at least 50 East to compete with the Mexican dollar.

One of the best-known dollars is that first issued by Maria Theresa of Austria. It became popular in the lands around the Red Sea and was issued unaltered regularly from the Vienna mint still bearing the date 1780, and later by the Italians and the British. For Abyssinian campaign, large quantities were struck at the Royal Mint, London. Ethiopia still uses the dollar as its basic currency unit Liberia apparently used the name dollar in view of the historical link between this country and the United States. In North America The use of “dollar” by Canada dates back to attempts to introduce a decimal system in that country about 1851. An act passed in that year provided for a decimal system of dollars and cents, based on a gold standard. It was not until 1858 that the first shipment of Canadian coins was received from the British Mint and started the Canadian coinage on its way.

Before the United States became independent, the major coins in circulation were the Spanish dollar and its parts, the four, two and mne real pieces.

The colonies suffered from English restrictions on their use of money. Each colony or group of colonies established a currency of account, “lawful money” as it was called, in pounds, shillings and pence that were worth less than sterling in England.

The common standard for this “lawful money” was the Spanish-milled dollar or piece-of-eight which was the commonest coin which came into the continent for the Caribbean, and so eventually chosen as the standard for the United States silver dollar.

The name “dollar” was ac. cepted by the United States as the currency name when its own currency system was introduced. Congress declared the dollar the official money in July, 1785, and established at this time, a decimal system.

When Hong Kong was founded in 1841, the normal unit of currency for foreign trade was the Spanish or Mexican silver dollar and this was commonly used until 1895 when the Queen in Council authorised a British trade dollar, equivalent to the Mexican dollar, to be minted in India. In Hong Kong this gradually replaced the Mexican dollar, although the latter still remained both legal tender and the standard by which other dollars were judged. The name “dollar,” as well as being used by Canada, the United States. Hong Kong. Liberia and Ethiopia, is also in use in the British Carib-

bean territories, Britsh Honduras and Malaysia. The dollar sign appears to be derived from a contracyears, the British Government struck a British dollar for circulation in the Far taon on the Spanish word “milhores” meaning thousands. Thus 234,000 would have been written 234 dollar sign, the letter M over S. Another possibility is that it was derived from a contraction of "peso” or the Spanish silver dollar, suggesting that a single bar was originally usedA further suggestion is that it is U over S—a contraction of United States, but it seems clear that the sign was in use for many years before the United States was formed. Another possible origin is that it is a modification of the future 8, signifying a piece of eight reales and linking it to the original Spanish dollar. The single-barred dollar sign is used in a number of countries. “Cent” has always been generally accepted as one hundredth part of the major unit with the sign of a letter

The remains of a paraceratherium, a giant rhinoceros that lived some 30 million years ago. were discovered in the foot hills of the Tien Shan mountains, in Kazakhstan. The partial skelton was 20ft high when reconstructed.