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53-748: The modern word dollar was derived from the Spanish dollar , so-called in the English-speaking world because they were of similar size and weight to the German Thalers . The German Thalers were so named because they were first minted from a silver mine in 1520 in Joachimsthal. It was the main silver currency in Bohemia from 1520 to 1750. [REDACTED] Media related to Joachimsthaler at Wikimedia Commons This article about

106-967: A common history with other dollars. Many of these currencies adopted the name after moving from a £sd -based to a decimalized monetary system. Examples include the Australian dollar , the New Zealand dollar , the Jamaican dollar , the Cayman Islands dollar , the Fiji dollar , the Namibian dollar , the Rhodesian dollar , the Zimbabwe dollar , and the Solomon Islands dollar . Spanish dollar The Spanish dollar , also known as

159-787: A similar silver coin which then became the Joachimsthaler. The Joachimsthaler of the 16th century was succeeded by the longer-lived Reichsthaler of the Holy Roman Empire , used from the 16th to 19th centuries. The Netherlands also introduced its own dollars in the 16th century: the Burgundian Cross Thaler ( Bourgondrische Kruisdaalder ), the German-inspired Rijksdaalder , and the Dutch lion dollar ( leeuwendaalder ). The latter coin

212-684: A troy pound (373.24). There are two quotes in the plays of William Shakespeare referring to dollars as money. Coins known as "thistle dollars" were in use in Scotland during the 16th and 17th centuries, and use of the English word, and perhaps even the use of the coin, may have begun at the University of St Andrews . This might be supported by a reference to the sum of "ten thousand dollars" in Macbeth (act I, scene II) (an anachronism because

265-644: A unit of currency is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Dollar Dollar is the name of more than 25 currencies . The United States dollar , named after the international currency known as the Spanish dollar , was established in 1792 and is the first so named that still survives. Others include the Australian dollar , Brunei dollar , Canadian dollar , Eastern Caribbean dollar , Hong Kong dollar , Jamaican dollar , Liberian dollar , Namibian dollar , New Taiwan dollar , New Zealand dollar , Singapore dollar , Trinidad and Tobago Dollar and several others. The symbol for most of those currencies

318-597: A well-known merchant and deemed genuine. Prior to 1873, the silver dollar circulated in many parts of the world, with a value in relation to the British gold sovereign of roughly $ 1 = 4s 2d (21p approx). As a result of the decision of the German Empire to stop minting silver thaler coins in 1871, in the wake of the Franco-Prussian War , the worldwide price of silver began to fall. This resulted in

371-581: A well-known merchant and determined to be genuine. The specifications of the Spanish dollar became a standard for trade in the Far East, with later Western powers issuing trade dollars , and colonial currencies such as the Hong Kong dollar , to the same specifications. The first Chinese yuan coins had the same specification as a Spanish dollar, leading to a continuing equivalence in some respects between

424-705: Is the dollar sign $ in the same way as many countries using peso currencies. The name "dollar" originates from Bohemia and a 29 g silver-coin called the Joachimsthaler . (Alongside the Singapore dollar ) (SGD) (Alongside the Brunei dollar ) (BND) On 15 January 1520, the Kingdom of Bohemia began minting coins from silver mined locally in Joachimsthal and marked on reverse with

477-452: Is very close to the geometric mean of one troy pound and one pennyweight . In what follows, "dollar" will be used as a unit of mass. A troy pound being 5760 grains and a pennyweight being 240 times smaller, or 24 grains, the geometric mean is, to the nearest hundredth, 371.81 grains. This means that the ratio of a pound to a dollar (15.52) roughly equals the ratio of a dollar to a pennyweight (15.47). These ratios are also very close to

530-530: The Bohemian lion . The coins would be named Joachimsthaler after the town, becoming shortened in common usage to thaler or taler . The town itself derived its name from Saint Joachim , coupled with the German word Thal ( Tal in modern spelling), which means 'valley' ( cf. the English term dale ). This name found its way into other languages, for example: In contrast to other languages which adopted

583-628: The Coinage Act of 1857 . Many other currencies around the world, such as the Japanese yen and the Chinese yuan , were initially based on the Spanish dollar and other 8-real coins. Most theories trace the origin of the "$ " symbol , which originally had two vertical bars, to the pillars of Hercules wrapped in ribbons that appear on the reverse side of the Spanish dollar. The term peso was used in Spanish to refer to this denomination, and it became

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636-662: The New York Stock Exchange converted first to pricing in sixteenths of a dollar on 24 June 1997, and then in 2001 to decimal pricing. Long tied to the lore of piracy , "pieces of eight" were manufactured in the Spanish Americas and transported in bulk back to Spain, making them a very tempting target for seagoing pirates. In the Far East , it also arrived in the form of the Philippine peso in

689-763: The Philippines as part of the Spanish East Indies of the Spanish colonial empire through the Manila galleons that transported Mexican silver peso to Manila in the Manila-Acapulco Galleon Trade , where it would be exchanged for Philippine and Chinese goods , since silver was the only foreign commodity China would accept. In Oriental trade, Spanish dollars were often stamped with Chinese characters known as "chop marks" which indicated that particular coin had been assayed by

742-577: The piece of eight ( Spanish : real de a ocho , dólar , peso duro , peso fuerte or peso ), is a silver coin of approximately 38 mm (1.5 in) diameter worth eight Spanish reales . It was minted in the Spanish Empire following a monetary reform in 1497 with content 25.563 g (0.8219 ozt) fine silver. It was widely used as the first international currency because of its uniformity in standard and milling characteristics. Some countries countermarked

795-693: The "$ " mark, and this new symbol was retained to refer to the American dollar as well, once this currency was adopted in 1785 by the United States. By the time of the American Revolution , the Spanish dólar gained significance because they backed paper money authorized by the individual colonies and the Continental Congress . Because Britain deliberately withheld hard currency from the American colonies, virtually all

848-614: The 15th to the 19th centuries the coin was minted with several different designs at various mints in Spain and the New World , having gained wide acceptance beyond Spain's borders. Thanks to the vast silver deposits that were found mainly in Potosí in modern-day Bolivia and to a lesser extent in Mexico (for example, at Taxco and Zacatecas ), and to silver from Spain's possessions throughout

901-718: The 16th century: the Burgundian Cross Thaler ( Bourgondrische Kruisdaalder ), the German-inspired Rijksdaalder , and the Dutch lion dollar ( leeuwendaalder ). The latter coin was used for Dutch trade in the Middle East, in the Dutch East Indies and West Indies, and in the Thirteen Colonies of North America. For the English North American colonists, however, the Spanish peso or "piece of eight" has always held first place, and this coin

954-476: The 19th and early 20th centuries led several countries, notably the United Kingdom, United States and Japan , to mint trade dollars , which were often of slightly different weights from comparable domestic coinage. Silver dollars reaching China (whether Spanish, trade, or other) were often stamped with Chinese characters known as " chop marks ", which indicated that that particular coin had been assayed by

1007-491: The 19th century when the peso was divided into 100 centavos. However, monetary turbulence in Spain beginning under the reign of King Philip II resulted in the dollar being subdivided as follows in Spain only: Spain's adoption of the peseta in 1869 and its joining the Latin Monetary Union meant the effective end of the last vestiges of the Spanish dollar in Spain itself. However, the 5-peseta coin (or duro )

1060-447: The 19th century, with the peso at 27.07 grams (0.955 oz) of 0.9028 fine silver, and the escudo at 3.383 grams (0.1193 oz) of 0.875 fine gold. The Mexican peso or 8-real coin continued to be a popular international trading coin throughout the 19th century. After 1918, the peso was reduced in size and fineness, with further reductions in the 1940s and 1950s. However, 2- (1921), 5- (1947) and 10-peso (1955) coins were minted during

1113-694: The Americas, mints in Mexico and Peru also began to strike the coin. The main New World mints for Spanish dollars were at Potosí , Lima , and Mexico City (with minor mints at Bogotá , Popayán , Guatemala City , and Santiago ), and silver dollars from these mints could be distinguished from those minted in Spain by the Pillars of Hercules design on the reverse. The dollar or peso was divided into 8 reales in Spanish Latin America until

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1166-519: The British colonies to mean a piece of eight or a Spanish-American dollar, because Spanish gold and silver coins were irregularly shaped and crudely struck before the machine-milled dollar was introduced in 1732. After the introduction of the Guldengroschen in Austria in 1486, the concept of a large silver coin with high purity (sometimes known as "specie" coinage) eventually spread throughout

1219-549: The New World and in the Philippines . The sign is first attested in business correspondence in the 1770s as a scribal abbreviation "p ", referring to the Spanish American peso , that is, the "Spanish dollar" as it was known in British North America. These late 18th- and early 19th-century manuscripts show that the s gradually came to be written over the p developing a close equivalent to

1272-652: The Philippines, Mexico, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Colombia, Chile, Argentina, and Uruguay. In the 16th century, Count Hieronymus Schlick of Bohemia began minting a silver coin known as a Joachimsthaler , named after Joachimsthal , the valley in the Ore Mountains where the silver was mined. Joachimsthaler was later shortened to thaler or taler , a word that eventually found its way into many European languages including

1325-515: The Spanish tálero and English as dollar . The Joachimsthaler weighed 451 Troy grains (29.2 g; 0.94 ozt) of silver. These coins' success led to similar thaler s being minted in Burgundy and France and their ultimate succession by the long-lived Reichsthaler of the Holy Roman Empire , used from the 16th to 19th centuries, of 25.984 g (0.8354 ozt) pure silver. The Netherlands also introduced its own dollars in

1378-453: The Spanish dollar so it could be used as their local currency. Because the Spanish dollar was widely used in Europe, the Americas, and the Far East, it became the first world currency by the 16th century. The Spanish dollar was the coin upon which the original United States dollar was based (at 0.7735 troy ounces or 24.06 grams), and it remained legal tender in the United States until

1431-531: The Treasury. Initially this dollar was comparable to the 371–373 grains found in circulating Spanish dollars and aided in its exportation overseas. The restoration of the old 0.9028 fineness in the Mexican peso after 1821, however, increased the latter's silver content to 24.44 g and reduced the export demand for U.S. dollars. Before the American Revolution , owing to British mercantilist policies, there

1484-638: The Treasury] shall sell silver under conditions the Secretary considers appropriate for at least $ 1.292929292 a fine troy ounce." Silver was mostly removed from U.S. coinage by 1965 and the dollar became a free-floating fiat money without a commodity backing defined in terms of real gold or silver. The US Mint continues to make silver $ 1-denomination coins, but these are not intended for general circulation. The quantity of silver chosen in 1792 to correspond to one dollar, namely, 371.25 grains of pure silver,

1537-536: The U.S. Coinage Act (1873) which put the United States onto a ' de facto ' gold standard. Canada and Newfoundland were already on the gold standard, and the result was that the value of the dollar in North America increased in relation to silver dollars being used elsewhere, particularly Latin America and the Far East . By 1900 , value of silver dollars had fallen to 50 percent of gold dollars. Following

1590-608: The abandonment of the gold standard by Canada in 1931, the Canadian dollar began to drift away from parity with the U.S. dollar. It returned to parity a few times, but since the end of the Bretton Woods system of fixed exchange rates that was agreed to in 1944, the Canadian dollar has been floating against the U.S. dollar. The silver dollars of Latin America and South East Asia began to diverge from each other as well during

1643-463: The basis for many of the currencies in the former Spanish viceroyalties, including the Argentine , Bolivian , Chilean , Colombian , Costa Rican , Cuban , Dominican , Ecuadorian , Guatemalan , Honduran , Mexican , Nicaraguan , Paraguayan , Philippine , Puerto Rican , Peruvian , Salvadoran , Uruguayan , and Venezuelan pesos. Of these, "peso" remains the name of the official currency in

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1696-411: The coins out of the colony, and to double their number, the centres of the coins were punched out. The punched centre, known as the "dump", was valued at 15 pence , and the outer rim, known as the " holey dollar ", was worth five shillings . This was indicated by overstamping the two new coins. The obverse of the holey dollar was stamped the words "New South Wales" and the date, 1813, and the reverse with

1749-540: The course of the 20th century. The Straits dollar adopted a gold exchange standard in 1906 after it had been forced to rise in value against other silver dollars in the region. Hence, by 1935, when China and Hong Kong came off the silver standard , the Straits dollar was worth 2s 4d (11.5p approx) sterling , whereas the Hong Kong dollar was worth only 1s 3d sterling (6p approx). The term "dollar" has also been adopted by other countries for currencies which do not share

1802-455: The dollar coin, such that a half-dollar was to contain half as much silver as a dollar, quarter-dollars would contain one-fourth as much, and so on. In an act passed in January 1837, the dollar's weight was reduced to 412.5 grains and alloy at 90% silver, resulting in the same fine silver content of 371.25 grains. On 21 February 1853, the quantity of silver in the lesser coins was reduced, with

1855-522: The effect that their denominations no longer represented their silver content relative to dollar coins. Various acts have subsequently been passed affecting the amount and type of metal in U.S. coins, so that today there is no legal definition of the term "dollar" to be found in U.S. statute. Currently the closest thing to a definition is found in United States Code Title 31, Section 5116, paragraph b, subsection 2: "The Secretary [of

1908-403: The gold to silver ratio be exactly 15.5. Then a pennyweight of gold, that is 24 grains of gold, is nearly equal in value to a dollar of silver (1 dwt of gold = $ 1.002 of silver). Second, a dollar of gold is nearly equal in value to a pound of silver ($ 1 of gold = 5754 3/8 grains of silver = 0.999 Lb of silver). Third, the number of grains in a dollar (371.25) roughly equals the number of grams in

1961-759: The names "yuan" and "dollar" in the Chinese language. Other currencies also derived from the dollar include the Japanese yen , Korean won , Philippine peso , Malaysian ringgit , French Indochinese piastre , etc. since it was widely traded across the Far East in the East Indies and the East Asia . Contemporary names used for Spanish dollars in Qing dynasty China include běnyáng (本洋), shuāngzhù (双柱), zhùyáng (柱洋), fóyáng (佛洋), fótóu (佛頭), fóyín (佛銀), and fótóuyín (佛頭銀). The "fó" element in those Chinese names referred to

2014-650: The non-token coinage in circulation was Spanish (and to a much lesser extent French and Dutch) silver, obtained via illegal but widespread commerce with the West Indies. Common in the Thirteen Colonies, Spanish dólar were even legal tender in one colony, Virginia . On 2 April 1792, U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton reported to Congress the precise amount of silver found in Spanish dollar coins in common use in

2067-640: The only recognised form of currency and ended any legitimate use of the holey dollar and dump in the Australian colonies. The Coinage Act of 1792 created the United States Mint and initially defined the United States dollar at par with the Spanish dollar due to its international reputation: By far the leading specie coin circulating in America was the Spanish silver dollar, defined as consisting of 387 grains of pure silver. The dollar

2120-588: The original of which was known as a Spanish dollar. Large numbers of these eight-real coins were captured during the Napoleonic Wars , hence their re-use by the Bank of England . They remained in use until 1811. During World War II , when the U.S. dollar was (approximately) valued at five shillings, the half crown (2s 6d) acquired the nickname "half dollar" or "half a dollar" in the UK. Chinese demand for silver in

2173-431: The ratio of a gram to a grain: 15.43. Finally, in the United States, the ratio of the value of gold to the value of silver in the period from 1792 to 1873 averaged to about 15.5, being 15 from 1792 to 1834 and around 16 from 1834 to 1873. This is also nearly the value of the gold to silver ratio determined by Isaac Newton in 1717. That these three ratios are all approximately equal has some interesting consequences. Let

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2226-457: The real Macbeth , upon whom the play was based, lived in the 11th century). In the Sherlock Holmes story " The Man with the Twisted Lip " by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle , published in 1891, an Englishman posing as a London beggar describes the shillings and pounds he collected as dollars. In 1804, a British five- shilling piece, or crown , was sometimes called "dollar". It was an overstruck Spanish eight real coin (the famous " piece of eight "),

2279-439: The rest of Europe. Monetary reform in Spain brought about the introduction of an 8-real (or 1-peso) coin in 1497, minted to the following standards- This was supplemented in 1537 by the gold escudo , minted at 68 to a mark of gold 0.917 fine (fineness reduced to 0.906 in 1742 and 0.875 in 1786). It was valued at 15–16 reales or approximately 2 dollars. The famed Gold Doubloon was worth 2 escudos or approximately 4 dollars. From

2332-424: The same period with sizes and fineness similar to the old peso. After the colony of New South Wales was founded in Australia in 1788, it ran into the problem of a lack of coinage, particularly since trading vessels took coins out of the colony in exchange for their cargo. In 1813, Governor Lachlan Macquarie made creative use of £10,000 in Spanish dollars sent by the British government. To make it difficult to take

2385-404: The second part of word joachimsthaler , the first part found its way into Russian language and became efimok  [ ru ] , yefimok (ефимок). The predecessor of the Joachimsthaler was the Guldengroschen or Guldiner which was a large silver coin originally minted in Tirol in 1486, but which was introduced into the Duchy of Saxony in 1500. The King of Bohemia wanted

2438-453: The states. As a result, the United States dollar was defined as a unit of pure silver weighing 371 4/16th grains (24.057 grams), or 416 grains of standard silver (standard silver being defined as 371.25/416 in silver, and balance in alloy). It was specified that the "money of account" of the United States should be expressed in those same "dollars" or parts thereof. Additionally, all lesser-denomination coins were defined as percentages of

2491-419: The words "five shillings". The obverse of the dump was stamped with a crown, the words "New South Wales" and the date, 1813, and the reverse with the words "fifteen pence". The mutilated coins became the first official currency produced specifically for circulation in Australia. The expedient was relatively short lived. The British Parliament passed the Sterling Silver Money Act in 1825, which made British coins

2544-399: Was a chronic shortage of British currency in Britain's colonies. Trade was often conducted with Spanish dollars that had been obtained through illicit trade with the West Indies . Spanish coinage was legal tender in the United States until the Coinage Act of 1857 discontinued the practice. The pricing of equities on U.S. stock exchanges in 1 ⁄ 8 -dollar denominations persisted until

2597-413: Was also called the "dollar" as early as 1581. After the Declaration of American Independence , the United States dollar was introduced in 1792 at par with this coin at 371.25 grains = 0.7735 troy ounces = 24.0566 g. Alexander Hamilton arrived at these numbers based on a treasury assay of the average fine silver content of a selection of worn Spanish dollars. The term cob was used in Ireland and

2650-409: Was divided into "pieces of eight," or "bits," each consisting of one-eighth of a dollar. Spanish dollars came into the North American colonies through lucrative trade with the West Indies. The Spanish silver dollar had been the world's outstanding coin since the early 16th century, and was spread partially by dint of the vast silver output of the Spanish colonies in Latin America. More important, however,

2703-439: Was slightly smaller and lighter but was also of high purity (90%) silver. In the 1990s, commemorative 2,000-peseta coins were minted, similar in size and weight to the dollar. Following independence in 1821, Mexican coinage of silver reales and gold escudos followed that of Spanish lines until decimalization and the introduction of the peso worth 8 reales or 100 centavos. It continued to be minted to Spanish standards throughout

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2756-442: Was that the Spanish dollar, from the 16th to the 19th century, was relatively the most stable and least debased coin in the Western world. The Coinage Act of 1792 specified that the U.S. dollar would contain 371.25 grains (24.057 g) pure or 416 grains (26.96 g) standard silver. This specification was based on the average weight of a random selection of worn Spanish dollars which Alexander Hamilton ordered to be weighed at

2809-409: Was used for Dutch trade in the Middle East, in the Dutch East Indies and West Indies, and in the Thirteen Colonies of North America. For the English North American colonists, however, the Spanish peso or "piece of eight" has always held first place, and this coin was also called the "dollar" as early as 1581. Spanish dollars or " pieces of eight " were distributed widely in the Spanish colonies in

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