History
The word dollar is an Anglicised form of the German word Thaler, the name given to coins first minted in 1520 from locally mined silver in Joachimsthal in Bohemia. The town now lies within the borders of the Czech republic and has the Czech name Jáchymov).
Later on, the English version of the name (dollar) was also applied to similar coins, not only ones minted in central Europe but also the Spanish peso and the Portuguese eight-real piece. Both of these large silver coins were practically identical in weight and fineness. Today we are familiar with the phrase "pieces of eight" from tales of pirates in the Caribbean.
Read more about this topic: Dollar
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“If you look at the 150 years of modern China’s history since the Opium Wars, then you can’t avoid the conclusion that the last 15 years are the best 15 years in China’s modern history.”
—J. Stapleton Roy (b. 1935)
“Regarding History as the slaughter-bench at which the happiness of peoples, the wisdom of States, and the virtue of individuals have been victimized—the question involuntarily arises—to what principle, to what final aim these enormous sacrifices have been offered.”
—Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831)
“Tell me of the height of the mountains of the moon, or of the diameter of space, and I may believe you, but of the secret history of the Almighty, and I shall pronounce thee mad.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)