The dollar (often represented by the dollar sign The dollar or peso sign is a symbol primarily used to indicate the various dollar and peso units of currency around the world: "$") is the name of the official currency In economics, the term currency can refer to a particular currency, for example Pound Sterling, or to the coins and banknotes of a particular currency, which comprise the physical aspects of a nation's money supply. The other part of a nation's money supply consists of money deposited in banks , ownership of which can be transferred by means of in several economies, including the United States The United States dollar is the official currency of the United States. The U.S. dollar is normally abbreviated as the dollar sign, $, or as USD or US$ to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies and from others that use the $ symbol. It is divided into 100 cents, Australia The Australian dollar is the currency of the Commonwealth of Australia, including Christmas Island, Cocos (Keeling) Islands, and Norfolk Island, as well as the independent Pacific Island states of Kiribati, Nauru and Tuvalu. Within Australia it is almost always abbreviated with the dollar sign ($), with A$ or AU$ sometimes used informally to, New Zealand The New Zealand dollar is the currency of New Zealand. It also circulates in the Cook Islands (see also Cook Islands dollar), Niue, Tokelau, and the Pitcairn Islands. It is divided into 100 cents, Canada The Canadian dollar is the currency of Canada. It is normally abbreviated with the Dollar/Peso sign $, or C$ to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies. It is divided into 100 cents. As of 2007, the Canadian dollar was the 7th most traded currency in the world, behind the US dollar, the euro, the yen, the pound sterling, the Swiss, the Eastern Caribbean territories, Hong Kong The Hong Kong dollar is the currency of Hong Kong. It is the 9th most traded currency in the world. In English, it is normally abbreviated with the dollar sign $, or alternatively HK$ to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies. The dollar is subdivided into 100 cents, Taiwan The New Taiwan dollar (currency code TWD and common abbreviation NT$), or simply Taiwan dollar, is the official currency of the Taiwan Area of the Republic of China (ROC) since 1949. Originally issued by the Bank of Taiwan, it has been issued by the Central Bank of the Republic of China since 2000, Singapore The dollar is the currency of Singapore. It is normally abbreviated with the dollar sign $, or alternatively S$ to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies. It is divided into 100 cents, Brunei The ringgit Brunei or the Brunei dollar (English, currency code: BND), has been the currency of the Sultanate of Brunei since 1967. It is normally abbreviated with the dollar sign $, or alternatively B$ to distinguish it from other dollar-dominated currencies, It is divided into 100 sen (Malay) or cents (English), East Timor East Timor centavo coins were introduced in East Timor in 2003 for use alongside United States Dollar banknotes and coins, which had been introduced in 2000 to replace the Indonesian rupiah following the commencement of U.N. administration. One centavo is equal to one US cent. The coins are in denominations of 1, 5, 10, 25 and 50 centavos and, Ecuador Ecuadorian centavo coins were introduced in 2000 when Ecuador converted its currency from the sucre to the U.S. dollar. The coins are in denominations of 1, 5, 10, 25 and 50 centavos and are identical in size and value to their US cent counterparts They circulate within Ecuador alongside coins and banknotes from the U.S.A. Unlike in the United, Suriname, El Salvador The United States dollar is the official currency of the United States. The U.S. dollar is normally abbreviated as the dollar sign, $, or as USD or US$ to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies and from others that use the $ symbol. It is divided into 100 cents, Panama The United States dollar is the official currency of the United States. The U.S. dollar is normally abbreviated as the dollar sign, $, or as USD or US$ to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies and from others that use the $ symbol. It is divided into 100 cents, and Belize The Belize dollar is the official currency in Belize, formerly known as British Honduras; is normally abbreviated with the dollar sign $, or alternatively BZ$ to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies. It is divided into 100 cents. The official value is pegged at 2 BZ$ = 1 US$ since 1978.

History

Etymology

In the 1500s, Count Hieronymus Schlick of Bohemia Bohemia (Czech: Čechy; German: Böhmen ; Polish: Czechy; French: Bohême; Latin: Bohemia) is a historical region in central Europe, occupying the western two-thirds of the traditional Czech Lands. It is located in the contemporary Czech Republic with its capital in Prague. In a broader meaning, it often refers to the entire Czech territory, began minting coins known as Joachimsthaler (from German thal, or nowadays usually Tal, "valley", cognate with "dale" in English), named for Joachimstal Jáchymov is a spa town in north-west Bohemia in the Czech Republic belonging to the Karlovy Vary Region. It is situated at an altitude of 733 m above sea level in the eponymous St. Joachim's valley in the Ore Mountains, close to the border to Germany (modern Jáchymov Jáchymov is a spa town in north-west Bohemia in the Czech Republic belonging to the Karlovy Vary Region. It is situated at an altitude of 733 m above sea level in the eponymous St. Joachim's valley in the Ore Mountains, close to the border to Germany in the Czech Republic The Czech Republic (pronounced /ˈtʃɛk/ chek; Czech: Česká republika, pronounced [ˈtʃɛskaː ˈrɛpuˌblɪka] ( listen), short form Česko [ˈtʃɛskɔ]) is a country in Central Europe. The country borders Poland to the northeast, Germany to the west and northwest, Austria to the south and Slovakia to the east. The Czech Republic has been a), where the silver was mined.^[1] Joachimsthaler was later shortened to taler The Thaler was a silver coin used throughout Europe for almost four hundred years. Its name lives on in various currencies as the dollar or tolar. Etymologically, "Thaler" is an abbreviation of "Joachimsthaler", a coin type from the city of Joachimsthal (Jáchymov) in Bohemia, where some of the first such coins were minted in 15 or thaler (same pronunciation), a word that eventually found its way into Danish Danish (dansk, pronounced [d̥ænˀsɡ̊] ) is one of the North Germanic languages (also called Scandinavian languages), a sub-group of the Germanic branch of the Indo-European languages. It is spoken by around 6 million people, mainly in Denmark; the language is also used by the 50,000 Danes in the northern parts of Schleswig-Holstein in Germany, Swedish Swedish ( svenska ) is a North Germanic language, spoken by approximately 10 million people, predominantly in Sweden and parts of Finland, especially along the coast and on the Åland islands. It is to a considerable extent mutually intelligible with Norwegian and to a lesser extent with Danish (see especially "Classification"). Along and Norwegian Norwegian is a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Norway, where it is the official language. Together with Swedish and Danish, Norwegian forms a continuum of more or less mutually intelligible local and regional variants (see Danish language) as (Riks)daler The riksdaler was the name of a Swedish coin first minted in 1604. Between 1777 and 1873, it was the currency of Sweden. The daler, like the dollar, was named after the German Thaler. The similarly named Reichsthaler, rijksdaalder, and rigsdaler were used in Germany and Austria-Hungary, the Netherlands, and Denmark-Norway, respectively. Riksdaler, Dutch Dutch ( Nederlands ) is a West Germanic language spoken by over 22 million people as a native language and over 5 million people as a second language. Most native speakers live in the Netherlands, Belgium, and Suriname, with smaller groups of speakers in parts of France, Germany and several former Dutch colonies. It is closely related to other as (rijks)daalder The guilder , represented by the symbol ƒ or fl., was the currency of the Netherlands from the 17th century until 2002, when it was replaced by the euro. Between 1999 and 2002, the guilder was officially a "national subunit" of the euro. However, physical payments could only be made in guilder, as no euro coins or banknotes were, Ethiopian Ethiopian Semitic is a language group, which together with Old South Arabian, forms the Western branch of the South Semitic languages. The languages are spoken in both Ethiopia and Eritrea. Some linguistics have begun calling this group "Afro-Semitic" to avoid the exclusive focus on Ethiopia, but its use is not widespread as ታላሪ talari, Italian Italian ( italiano , or lingua italiana) is a Romance language spoken as a native language by about 62 million people in Italy, San Marino and parts of Switzerland, Croatia, Slovenia and France. It is spoken as a first language by many Italian citizens and immigrants abroad, for a total of approximately 70 million native speakers. In addition, it as tallero, Flemish Flemish is derived from the name of the County of Flanders, from Middle Dutch vlāmisch, vlemesch. The name of the County of Flanders itself was first attested in Ghent, in 1237, and etymologically it derives from ‘Flandr’, which is Old Dutch roughly meaning ‘that which is flooded/flooded area’; compare Common Germanic *flōðuz, " as daelder, and English English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into South-East Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria. Following the economic, political, military, scientific, cultural, and colonial influence of Great Britain and the United Kingdom from the 18th century, and of as dollar.^[1]

Development of use

Guldiner The Guldengroschen was a large silver coin originally minted in Tirol in 1486 can be traced to 1486 when Archduke Sigismund of Tyrol, a small state in modern Austria Austria /ˈɒstriə/ or /ˈɔːstriə/ (German: Österreich (help·info)), officially the Republic of Austria (German: Republik Österreich), is a landlocked country of roughly 8.3 million people in Central Europe. It borders Germany and the Czech Republic to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and, issued a dollar-sized coin which was referred to as a "Guldiner The Guldengroschen was a large silver coin originally minted in Tirol in 1486". Silver supplies were small which limited coinage.^[2]

The German silver Thaler The Thaler was a silver coin used throughout Europe for almost four hundred years. Its name lives on in various currencies as the dollar or tolar. Etymologically, "Thaler" is an abbreviation of "Joachimsthaler", a coin type from the city of Joachimsthal (Jáchymov) in Bohemia, where some of the first such coins were minted in 15 coins were first minted in 1520 from silver taken from a mine at Joachimsthal Jáchymov is a spa town in north-west Bohemia in the Czech Republic belonging to the Karlovy Vary Region. It is situated at an altitude of 733 m above sea level in the eponymous St. Joachim's valley in the Ore Mountains, close to the border to Germany, Bohemia Bohemia (Czech: Čechy; German: Böhmen ; Polish: Czechy; French: Bohême; Latin: Bohemia) is a historical region in central Europe, occupying the western two-thirds of the traditional Czech Lands. It is located in the contemporary Czech Republic with its capital in Prague. In a broader meaning, it often refers to the entire Czech territory,, in the Holy Roman Empire The Holy Roman Empire (HRE; German: Heiliges Römisches Reich , Latin: Imperium Romanum Sacrum (IRS), Italian: Sacro Romano Impero (SRI)) was for about a millennium a realm in Central Europe under a Holy Roman Emperor. Its character changed during the Middle Ages and the Early Modern period, when the power of the emperor gradually weakened in. Not long after issuance, these coins gained the name Joachimsthalers. Subsequently, coins of similar size and weight were called Thaler The Thaler was a silver coin used throughout Europe for almost four hundred years. Its name lives on in various currencies as the dollar or tolar. Etymologically, "Thaler" is an abbreviation of "Joachimsthaler", a coin type from the city of Joachimsthal (Jáchymov) in Bohemia, where some of the first such coins were minted in 15, or dollar regardless of the issuing authority,^[3] and continued to be minted until 1872.

The Dutch lion dollar circulated throughout the Middle East The Middle East is a region that encompasses southwestern Asia and Egypt. In some contexts, the term has recently been expanded in usage to sometimes include Afghanistan and Pakistan, the Caucasus and Central Asia, and North Africa. It's often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East. The corresponding adjective is Middle-Eastern and was imitated in several German and Italian cities. It was also popular in the Dutch East Indies The Dutch East Indies, or Netherlands East Indies, was the Dutch colony that became modern Indonesia following World War II. It was formed from the nationalised colonies of the former Dutch East India Company that came under the administration of the Netherlands in 1800. During the nineteenth century, Dutch possessions in the archipelago and its as well as in the Dutch New Netherland Colony New Netherland, or Nieuw-Nederland in Dutch, was the seventeenth-century colonial province on the East Coast of North America of the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands. The claimed territories were the lands from the Delmarva Peninsula to extreme southwestern Cape Cod. The settled areas are now part of the Mid-Atlantic States of New York, (New York New York City, which is geographically the largest city in the state and most populous in the United States, is known for its history as a gateway for immigration to the United States and its status as a financial, cultural, transportation, and manufacturing center. According to the U.S. Department of Commerce, it is also a destination of choice). The lion dollar also has circulated throughout the Thirteen Colonies The Thirteen Colonies were British colonies on the Atlantic coast of North America, which declared their independence in the American Revolution and formed the United States. The colonies, whose territory ranged from what is now Maine to the north and Georgia to the south, were Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Georgia, Connecticut, 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."^[4] This Dutch currency made its way to the U.S. east coast due to the increased trading by Dutch colonial ships with other nations. By the mid-1700s, it was replaced by the Spanish 8 reales.^[5]

The Spanish peso The word peso was the name of a coin that originated in Spain and became of immense importance internationally. Peso is now the name of the monetary unit of several former Spanish colonies or pieces of eight The Spanish dollar is a silver coin, worth eight reales, that was minted in the Spanish Empire after a Spanish currency reform in 1497. It was legal tender in the United States until an Act of the United States Congress discontinued the practice in 1857. Because it was widely used in Europe, the Americas, and the Far East, it became the first (real de a ocho) also became known as the Spanish dollar The Spanish dollar is a silver coin, worth eight reales, that was minted in the Spanish Empire after a Spanish currency reform in 1497. Its purpose was to correspond to the German thaler. It was the coin upon which the US dollar was based, and it remained legal tender in the United States until an Act of the United States Congress discontinued the in the English speaking world because of their similarity in size and weight to the German silver Thaler The Thaler was a silver coin used throughout Europe for almost four hundred years. Its name lives on in various currencies as the dollar or tolar. Etymologically, "Thaler" is an abbreviation of "Joachimsthaler", a coin type from the city of Joachimsthal (Jáchymov) in Bohemia, where some of the first such coins were minted in 15 coins. It was worth eight reals (hence the nickname A nickname is a descriptive name given in place of or in addition to the official name of a person, place or thing. It can also be the familiar or truncated form of the proper name, which may sometimes be used simply for convenience (e.g. "Bobby", "Bob", "Rob", "Hob", or "Bert" for the name Robert) "pieces of eight"), and was widely circulated during the 18th century However, Western historians may sometimes specifically define the 18th century otherwise for the purposes of their work. For example, the "short" 18th century may be defined as 1715–1789, denoting the period of time between the death of Louis XIV of France and the start of the French Revolution with an emphasis on directly in the Spanish colonies in the New World Beginning with the 1492 arrival of Christopher Columbus, over nearly four centuries the Spanish Empire would expand across: most of present day Central America, the Caribbean islands, and Mexico; much of the rest of North America including the Southwestern, Southern coastal, and California Pacific Coast regions of the United States; and though, and in the Philippines.

Adoption by the United States

By the American Revolution in 1775, the Spanish coins became even more important because it backed paper money authorized by the individual colonies and the Continental Congress.^[5] Spanish dollars were in circulation in the Thirteen Colonies that became the United States, and were legal tender in Virginia. These coins had become the standard money then in use in the United States.

On April 2, 1792, Alexander Hamilton, then the Secretary of the Treasury, made a report to Congress having scientifically determined the amount of silver in the Spanish milled dollar coins that were then in current use by the people. As a result of this report, the Dollar was defined^[6] as a unit of measure of 371 4/16th grains (24.057 grams) of pure silver or 416 grains of standard silver (standard silver being defined as 1,485 parts fine silver to 179 parts alloy^[7]).

In section 20 of the Act, it is specified that the "money of account" of the United States shall be expressed in those same "dollars" or parts thereof. All of the minor coins were also defined in terms of percentages of the primary coin — the dollar — such that a half dollar contained ½ as much silver as a dollar, quarter dollars contained ¼ as much, and so on.

In an act passed in January, 1837, the alloy was changed to 11%, having the effect of containing the same amount of silver but being reduced in weight to 412¼ grains of standard silver which was changed to 90% pure and 11% alloy. On February 21, 1853 the amount of silver in the fractional coins was reduced so that it was no longer possible to combine the fractional coins to come up with the same amount of silver that was in the dollar.

Various acts have been passed over the years that affected the amount and type of metal in the coins minted by the United States such that today, there is no legal definition of the term "Dollar" to be found in any Statute of the United States.^[8][9][10]

Today, the closest definition to a dollar comes from the United States code Title 31, Section 5116, paragraph b, subsection 2, "The Secretary [of the Treasury] shall sell silver under conditions the Secretary considers appropriate for at least $1.292929292 a fine troy ounce." However Federal Reserve banks are only required to deliver credits instead of money. The silver content of US coinage was mostly removed in 1965 and the dollar essentially became a baseless free-floating fiat currency, though the US Mint continues to make silver $1 coins at this weight.

Usage in Great Britain

The word dollar had been 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. Coins known as "Thistle dollars" were in use in Scotland during the 17th century, and there is a claim that the use of the English word, and perhaps even the use of the coin, began at the University of St Andrews^{[citation needed]}. This would explain a reference to the sum of "Ten thousand dollars" mentioned in Macbeth (Act I, Scene II). The real Macbeth, upon whom the play was based, lived in the 11th century, making the reference anachronistic; however anachronisms are not rare in Shakespeare's work.

In the early 19th century, a British five-shilling piece, or crown, was sometimes called a "dollar," probably because its appearance was similar to the Spanish dollar. This expression appeared again in the 1940s, when US troops came to the UK during World War II. At the time a US dollar was worth about 5/- (5 shillings/25p)., so some of the US soldiers started calling it a dollar. Consequently, they called the half crown, "half a dollar."

Continued Chinese demand for silver led several countries, notably the United Kingdom, United States and Japan, to mint trade dollars in the 19th and early 20th centuries, often of slightly different weights to their 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 a well-known merchant and determined genuine.

Related names in modern currencies

• The tala is based on the Samoan pronunciation of the word "dollar." Likewise, the name of the smaller unit, seneiti, equates to "cent."
• The Slovenian tolar had the same origin as dollar, i.e. thaler.

National currencies called "dollar"

Prior to 1873, the silver dollar circulated in many parts of the world, and with a value in relation to the British gold sovereign of roughly $1 = 4s 2d (21p approx). Following the US Coinage Act (1873), the value of silver declined in relation to Gold, and the USA went unto 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 the silver dollars that were being used elsewhere in the world, notably in Latin America, and the Far East. By 1900, the silver dollars had fallen to 50 cents in relation to the gold dollars. Following the abandoning of the gold standard by Canada in 1931, the Canadian dollar began to drift away from parity with the US dollar. It returned to parity a few times, but since the ending of the Bretton Woods system of fixed exchange rates that was agreed in 1944, the Canadian dollar has been floating against the US dollar. As regards the silver dollars of Latin America and South East Asia, they began to diverge from each other as well during 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 the 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).

Existing dollar units today are the Bahamian dollar, the Barbados dollar, the Belize dollar, the Bermuda dollar, the Brunei dollar, the Canadian dollar, the East Caribbean dollar, the Guyanese dollar, the Hong Kong dollar, the New Taiwan dollar, the Singapore dollar, the Trinidad and Tobago dollar, the United States dollar. The only ones on this list that have still retained their original parity from the days of the universal Spanish dollar are the Singapore dollar and the Brunei dollar.

Other countries in recent times have adopted the name dollar for their national currency, but these are not true dollars as such. They are in fact half-pound units of countries that had been using a sterling based system prior to adopting the decimal system. Examples of these kind of dollars are 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.

Economies which use the dollar

Economies currently using the dollar

Countries and regions which have previously used the dollar

• Malaysia: the Malaysian Ringgit used to be called the "Malaysian Dollar." The surrounding territories (i.e. Malaya, British North Borneo, Sarawak, Brunei, and Singapore) used several varieties of dollars (e.g. Straits dollar, Malayan dollar, Sarawak dollar, British North Borneo dollar; Malaya and British Borneo dollar) before Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei gained their independence from the United Kingdom. See also for a complete list of currencies.
• Spain: the Spanish dollar is closely related the Dollars and Pesos used today.
• Rhodesia: the Rhodesian dollar replaced the Rhodesian pound in 1970 and it was used until Zimbabwe came into being in 1980.

Other territories which currently use the dollar

• Anguilla
• Bermuda
• British Indian Ocean Territory
• British Virgin Islands
• Cayman Islands
• Montserrat
• Turks and Caicos Islands
• Saint Pierre and Miquelon (France) (alongside the Euro)

Countries which accept the dollar, but is not their official currency

• Afghanistan
• Cambodia
• Lebanon
• Mexico
• Guatemala^[12]
• Panama^[13]
• Bolivia

See also

• Fiat Money
• Eurodollar
• Amero
• Dollar sign
• List of circulating currencies
• Petrodollar
• United States one hundred-dollar bill

References

1. ^ ^{a b} National Geographic. June 2002. p. 1. Ask Us.
2. ^ Julian, R.W. (2007). All About the DOLLAR. Numismatist. pp. 41.
3. ^ Rhodes, Richard (2009). The making of the atomic bomb. New York: Simon and Schuster. pp. 118.
4. ^ "Lion Dollar — Introduction". http://www.coins.nd.edu/ColCoin/ColCoinIntros/Lion-Dollar.intro.html.
5. ^ ^{a b} Julian, R.W. (2007). All About the Dollar. Numismatist. pp. 41.
6. ^ Act of April 2, A.D. 1792 of the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, Section 9.
7. ^ Section 13 of the Act.
8. ^ United States Statutes at Large.
9. ^ Yeoman, RS. A Guide Book of United States Coins.
10. ^ Ewart, James E. Money — Ye shall have honest weights and measures.
11. ^ Alongside Zimbabwean dollar (suspended indefinitely from 12 April 2009), Euro, Pound Sterling, South African rand and Botswana pula. The US Dollar has been adopted as the official currency for all government transactions.
12. ^ Wojtanik, Andrew (2005). Afghanistan to Zimbabwe. Washington, DC: National Geographic Society. pp. 147.
13. ^ Alongside Panamanian balboa coins

External links

• Etymonline (word history) for "buck" and Etymonline (word history) for "dollar"
• Thesaurus (synonyms)
• The Source: Slang Dictionary

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