dollar (n.)


The thaler was a large silver coin of varying value in the German states; from 17c. it was the more-or-less standardized coin of northern Germany (as opposed to the southern gulden). It also served as a currency unit in Denmark and Sweden (and later was a unit of the German monetary union of 1857-73 equal to three marks). English colonists in America used the word in reference to Spanish pieces of eight. Due to extensive trade with the Spanish Indies and the proximity of Spanish colonies along the Gulf Coast, the Spanish "dollar" probably was the coin most familiar in the American colonies and the closest thing to a standard in all of them. It had the added advantage of not being British. It was used in the government's records of public debt and expenditures, and the Continental Congress in 1786 adopted dollar as a unit when it set up the modern U.S. currency system, which was based on the suggestion of Gouverneur Morris (1782) as modified by Thomas Jefferson. None were circulated until 1794.




Joachimsthal was founded 1604 by Joachim Frederick (1546-1608), Elector of Brandenburg.