The dollar (often represented by the dollar sign: "$") is the name of the official currency in several countries, including the US, Australia, and Canada, dependencies and other world regions.

History

The German name Thaler comes from the Bohemian coin minted in the 16th century from silver mined at Joachimsthal in Bohemia. Not long after issuance, these coins gained the name Joachimsthalers. Subsequently, the coins were called "thaler" regardless of the issuing authority, and continued to be minted until 1872.

The name is historically related to the Reichsthaler in Germany, the tolar in Slovenia (Slovenian tolar) and Bohemia, the daalder in the Netherlands, and daler in Sweden, Denmark, and Norway. "Guildiner" can be traced to 1486 when Archduke Sigismund of Tyrol, a small state north of Venice, issued a dollar-sized coin which was referred to as a "guildiner". Silver supplies were small which limited coinage.

The Dutch lion dollar circulated throughout the Middle East and was imitated in several German and Italian cities. It was also popular in the Dutch East Indies as well as in the Dutch New Netherlands Colony (New York). The lion dollar also has circulated throughout the English colonies during the 17th and early 18th centuries . Examples circulating in the colonies were usually fairly well worn so that the design was not fully distinguishable, thus they were sometimes referred to as "dog dollars." This Dutch currency made its way to the east coast due to the increased trading by colonial ships with other nations. By the mid-1700s, it was replaced by the Spanish 8 reales.

The name "Spanish dollar" was used for a Spanish coin, the "real de a ocho" and later peso. It was worth eight reals (hence the nickname "pieces of eight"), and was widely circulated during the 18th century in the Spanish colonies in the New World, and in Spanish territories in Asia, namely in the Philippines. The use of the Spanish dollar and the Maria Theresa thaler as legal tender for the early United States and its fractions were the mainstay of commerce. They are the reasons for the name of that nation's currency.Fact: date=August 2007 By the American Revolution in 1775, these Spanish coins became even more important. They backed paper money authorized by the individual colonies and the Continental Congress. However, the word dollar was in use in the English language as slang or mis-pronunciation for the thaler for about 200 years before the American Revolution, with many quotes in the plays of Shakespeare referring to dollars as money. Spanish dollars were in circulation in the Thirteen Colonies that became the United States, and were legal tender in Virginia.