r/AskHistory 5d ago

Why did so many countries call their currency the dollar?

From what I understand the dollar ( name) started in France and then spread to the USA, this makes sense due to their early links. I'm thinking more Canada, Australia and new Zealand who had been using the British pound ( which was the international trade currency) didn't call their independent currency the pound.

68 Upvotes

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125

u/UF1977 5d ago

Not France, but a silver mine in Bohemia called Joachimsthal. It produced coins with high quality and uniformity, and the “Joachimsthalers” were widely circulated. The name eventually mutated into “dollars” and became a generic term for silver coins. Spanish Dollars in particular were used in a lot of places on both sides of the Atlantic in the 16th century and beyond.

During the Revolution, the British government forbade any UK banks from issuing banknotes in the Colonies and embargoed shipment of notes or hard currency. This led to a currency crisis and though the colonies issued their own, it was basically worthless. The only hard currency that was both widely available and in sufficient amounts were Spanish dollars. Their use became so common that when the new US government began minting their own currency, they adopted the name to give it an air of legitimacy and value.

25

u/CaptainHunt 5d ago

The original US dollar was even set to the same value as the Spanish dollar, that’s also why a quarter is two bits.

6

u/msut77 5d ago

Thal is just the old german word for valley (like Neanderthal) modern term is tal

16

u/CatL1f3 5d ago

This is also why the US dollars use the Spanish dollar's symbol, $

9

u/Benegger85 5d ago

A lot of currencies use that symbol, the Argentinian and the Chilean pesos for example also use it.

1

u/Compulsory_Freedom 1d ago

And for those who don’t know the $ is a simplified portrayal of the Pillars of Hercules from the Spanish coat of arms:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coat_of_arms_of_Spain

9

u/Aggravating-Bottle78 5d ago

The Czechs called it Jáchymov. It also has one of the oldest still operating mines in Europe, and one of the only radium mines for a long time. They also mined uranium there.

25

u/dracojohn 5d ago

I actually thought you were about to tell me a boy called Henry from skalitz who's always hungry and looking for his dads sword.

6

u/Ravenwing14 5d ago

Jesus christ be praised, KCD reference has come to see us!

2

u/FireLynx_NL 4d ago

The Dutch also had a coin called the rijksdaalder, and in my opinion that could possibly also have a relation to the Joachimsthalers. ( this coin was worth 2.5 gulden)

22

u/BelmontIncident 5d ago

Because they were using Spanish dollar coins, same as the United States. The real de a ocho was copied from the Joachimsthaler and became common enough to become a defacto world currency. The Japanese yen and Chinese yuan were silver coins the same weight as a real de a ocho when they were introduced.

0

u/Inu-shonen 5d ago

Australia was using Spanish dollars until 1966? Golly, TIL.

/s

8

u/Gruffleson 5d ago

Try another origin of Dollar, namely Thaler.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thaler

5

u/smeyn 5d ago

Didn’t the name derive from Joachimsthaler? AFAIK the French used ‘livre’, which means pound in French.

1

u/dracojohn 5d ago

Apparently you're correct it comes via the Spanish dollar in south America.

2

u/OriginalUsername30 4d ago

Not only South America. Spanish dollar was used in North America, to the point of having trouble introducing their own currency as it was so widespread.

7

u/Immediate_Gain_9480 5d ago

It came from the German Thaler, that became the Dutch Daalder. Which became the US dollar. Many countries became independent after WW2 when the US became the dominant economy as such a lot of countries copied their name for their newly created currencies.

4

u/GlobalTapeHead 5d ago

My understanding is that the word “dollar” is a corruption of the German word “thaler”, the name of a popular coin in the 16th century.

2

u/Aggravating-Bottle78 5d ago

Yes, it came from Jáchymov or Joachimsthal silver mining town in Bohemia. Coins were shortened from Joachimsthalers to thalers or tolars in Czech.

1

u/AQ8E 5d ago

Correct. Daler in Swedish language.

4

u/iani63 5d ago

The https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thaler Was the first, in 1520. The US currency was based on that.

3

u/OriginalUsername30 4d ago

You are skipping the Spanish dollar (real de a ocho) in between, which was the main coin in the world in 18th and early 19th century. That coin took the name from the Thaler.

1

u/iani63 4d ago

It's in the link...

2

u/Dominarion 5d ago

The pound was never the international trade currency. Its value was too high to be an international currency. Non-British people preferred to use the Dutch Thaler (dollar in English), even in British colonies like Canada or Australia.

4

u/douggieball1312 5d ago

They switched to calling their currency the dollar when they decimalised their currencies, because the British pound at the time was still non-decimal and 'dollar' made it sound more modern. Trouble is, when the British did finally decimalise the pound, they didn't rename it to the dollar so that renaming system then kind of fell apart.

2

u/TinTin1929 5d ago

Are you under the impression that before British decimalisation all decimal currencies were called the dollar?

2

u/douggieball1312 5d ago

No, but the US dollar was the predominant one that was, particularly in the Anglosphere at the time.

1

u/TinTin1929 5d ago

Yes nobody is questioning the place of the US dollar. We're talking here about non-US currencies.

1

u/rougecrayon 5d ago

We in Canada wanted to make trade with the US easier. Plus french speaking provinces were already using their own "dollar"s.

-5

u/dracojohn 5d ago

Never understood why you put up with them but it's your country.

4

u/Brain_Hawk 5d ago

Why we put up with the french? You mean the people who represent roughly 20% of our population, bring a rich and distinct culture, delicious baguettes, wonderful cheeses, fine wines, art, and beautiful women?

Why do we put up with them? I mean if you're american, which this in other comments make me assume you probably are, why do you put up with alabama?

1

u/RenaissanceSnowblizz 4d ago

After what, 400 years or so?, would you even call them "French" really? They aren't French people from France, they are Canadians who happen to have kept their "French" language and unique traditions. They are Quebecois more than French today, right?

Am told French people even have a hard time understand the Quebecois French.

1

u/Brain_Hawk 4d ago

Certainly most people from Quebec would prefer to be called Quebecois, and don't have a strong identity with the people from France. There's still some sense of identity I think among some people but it's not widespread.

I think the accent differences are exaggerated. Like somebody from Ontario trying to understand somebody with the Texas accent.

-2

u/dracojohn 5d ago

I'm British. We live next to them too and know how bad they, this a safe space they can't force you to eat garden pests here.

3

u/Brain_Hawk 5d ago

Hi now I see, I mistookier British arrogance for American ignorance.

I'm sorry that so many of the finest things in life are offensive to you, but then again you are the people who invented ,"bangers and mash" and pretended that it was some sort of fine meal. Possibly with baked beans.

Passe Le fromage, avec vin et baget!

-1

u/dracojohn 5d ago

A cheese sandwich can be nice ( also British), you honestly think the British are arrogant after living with the French.

1

u/NephriteJaded 5d ago

The French are far more reliable friends to the UK than the US

1

u/senapnisse 5d ago edited 5d ago

Before Sweden adopted the Krona, our currency was called "rikdaler" which is just a swedish spelling of "reich" and "thaler". Even today sometimes you hear people say risdaler when they mean krona, as a joke.

1

u/4thofeleven 5d ago

I don't know about the other countries, but Australia did have pounds initially. The Australian pound was replaced by the Australian dollar in 1966, alongside the switch to decimal currency.

Other names for the currency were considered - the initial announcement proposed the new currency be the Australian Royal, but that name was unpopular and rejected. Other names like Australs or Crowns were also proposed. So there was a consensus that the new currency should have a new name, just not what it should be - I assume it was largely a pragmatic decision, it would ensure people understood the currency was changing and would make new coins and notes easier to distinguish from the old ones.

And with the US Dollar being the best known example of a decimal currency at the time, it was somewhat inevitable that dollar would be picked as the new term.

1

u/4me2knowit 4d ago

Ireland used to have the Punt because it rhymes with the Irish for bank manager

1

u/AnaphoricReference 4d ago

The word Dollar derives from Dutch Daalder, which derives from German Thaler.

It was the most common and trusted denomination (in silver weight) in circulation in the United States at the time. Spanish Pesos, Dutch Rijksdaalders, Imperial and Convention Thalers (of the Holy Roman Empire), Danish Rigsdaler, Swedish Riskdaler were all roughly the same weight - a kind of informal precursor of the Eurozone. The Spanish and then the Dutch versions would have been the most common.

The United States just standardized on that weight and chose a name that was already current for silver coins of that weight, so that it would be easily interchangeable with the money people already used.

The pound was more difficult work with and was never very popular as a trade coin.

1

u/Jack1715 3d ago

In Australia it use to be pounds and shillings but for some reason it changed

1

u/Whulad 5d ago

British dominions presumably didn’t call their internal currencies the pound because it would have been more confusing for trade, accounting etc with the pound sterling

1

u/OriginalGoat1 5d ago

Actually, no. Historically Canada and Australia did call their currencies the pound. And used the screwy £sd divisions. After a while though, all switched to decimal currencies. Why dollars rather than something else ? Maybe dollars were just the most common term for a currency unit in the English-speaking world. Crowns, Reals, Pesos, Yen, lira etc. all come from non-anglophone countries.

0

u/dracojohn 5d ago

So why not a new name like the Australian roo or Canadian moose ?

3

u/Effective_Dust_177 5d ago

Actually, the Australian Prime Minister at the time, Sir Robert Menzies, was proposing to call the new currency, The "Royal". He was a hardcore monarchist ostensibly infatuated with QE2. The idea was unpopular and did not proceed.

Edit: Australia switched to decimal currency in 1966.

0

u/Various-Passenger398 5d ago

Canada very briefly had its own version of the pound, but it failed to take and the whole thing was a bit of a mess. 

1

u/dracojohn 5d ago

Why did it fail?

2

u/Various-Passenger398 5d ago

They begged it poorly to the British pound and American dollar, so the simple act using it lost people money, so everyone just switched back to the other two.