Where does the word "dollar" come from?

During the Renaissance, a vast amount of high-quality silver ore was extracted from a mine in Joachimsthal, or the valley of St. Joachim, in Bohemia, now the Czech Republic.

A large coin produced with the silver taken from this mine was called a "Joachimsthaler;" and, as time went by, the first part of this name, "Joachims," was dropped, leaving simply "thaler." Because of the various dialects spoken, pronunciation varied from one region to another. In Holland, for example, this word was pronounced "daalder," from which the English "dollar" is derived.

The United States was the first to use the term "dollar" to refer to an official national monetary unit. After the American Revolution, the Continental Congress of the United States adopted the decimal dollar (100 cents to the dollar) as the monetary unit. The first coins were issued in 1794.

Circa 1854, the dollar was gradually adopted as the official monetary unit in the Province of Canada.