Why is the monetary unit of the United States called "dollar"?

Question

Where did this name come from?

Answer 1

"The name is related to the tolar in Slovenia (and historically in Bohemia), the daalder in the Netherlands and daler in Sweden, Denmark, and Norway. Of these, only the Slovenian Tolar is still in use; on 1 January 2007, however, it will be replaced by the euro.

The name "Spanish dollar" was used for a Spanish coin, the peso, worth eight reals (hence the nickname "pieces of eight"), which was widely circulated during the 18th century in the Spanish colonies in the New World. The use of the Spanish dollar and the Maria Theresa thaler as legal tender for the early United States are the reasons for the name of the nation's currency. 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."

Pretty cool I had no idea. It also goes on to talk about old Scottish coins being called dollars. But the Spanish seem to have the term we ended up using in the US for the American dollar.

Answer 2

Even before the Declaration of Independence, the Continental Congress had authorized the issuance of dollar denominated coins and currency, since the term 'dollar' was in common usage referring to Spanish colonial 8 real coins or "Spanish Milled Dollars".

Answer 3

History
The dollar was unanimously chosen as the monetary unit for the United States on July 6, 1785. This was the first time a nation had adopted a decimal currency system.

Until 1974 the value of the United States dollar was tied to and backed by silver, gold, or a combination of the two. From 1792 to 1873 the U.S. dollar was freely backed by both gold and silver at a ratio of 15:1 under a system known as bimetallism. Through a series of legislative changes from 1873 to 1900, the status of silver was slowly diminished until 1900 when a gold standard was formally adopted. The gold standard survived, with several modifications, until 1971.

Bimetallism
The U.S. Coinage Act of 1792 established the United States Mint and set the following definition for a dollar:

"Dollars or Units—each to be of the value of a Spanish milled dollar as the same is now current, and to contain three hundred and seventy-one grains and four sixteenths parts of a grain [24.06 g] of pure, or four hundred and sixteen grains [26.96 g] of standard silver."



It also pegged the rate of exchange between pure silver and pure gold at 15:1. Thus the dollar was defined to be 371.25 grains (24.06 g) of silver or 24.75 grains (1.60 g) of gold and could be exchanged at the mint for either silver or gold in this 15:1 ratio. This standard, known as bimetallism, was used through much of the 19th century.

In 1834, due to a drop in the value of silver, the 15:1 ratio was changed to a 16:1 ratio. This created a new U.S. dollar that was backed by 1.50 g (23.2 grains) of gold. However, the previous dollar had been represented by 1.60 g (24.75 grains) of gold. The result of this revaluation, which was the first-ever devaluation of the U.S. dollar, reduced its gold value by 6%.

The discovery of large silver deposits in the Western United States in the late 19th century created a political controversy. On one side were agrarian interests such as the United States Greenback Party who wanted to retain the bimetallic standard in order to inflate the dollar, which would allow farmers to more easily repay their debts. On the other side were Eastern banking and commercial interests who advocated sound money and a switch to the gold standard. This issue split the Democratic Party in 1896. It led to the famous "cross of gold" speech given by William Jennings Bryan, and may have inspired many of the themes in The Wizard of Oz.

In 1878 the Bland-Allison Act was enacted to provide for freer coinage of silver. This act required the government to purchase between $2 million and $4 million worth of silver bullion each month at market prices and to coin it into silver dollars. This was, in effect, a subsidy for politically influential silver producers.

Answer 4

Derived from the words "Doll Hair" which were used to sew the original moneys together.

Heck if I know - that is a good question.

Answer 5

See the attached link.

Answer 6

they decided on "dollar" when peso and rupee were voted as sounding too ridiculous.