Dollar - Definition


Dollar - Definition

Alternate uses: Dollar (disambiguation)

The dollar is the name of the official currency in several countries, dependencies and other regions (see list below). It is represented by the symbol $.

The name is related to the historic currencies Tolar in Bohemia, Thaler in Germany, Daalder in the Netherlands and Daler in Sweden. The name thaler (from thal, "valley") originally came from the guldengroschen ("great gulden", being of silver but equal in value to a gold gulden) coins minted from the silver from a rich mine at Joachimsthal (St. Joachim's Valley) in Bohemia (then part of the Habsburg Empire). The name Spanish dollar was used for a Spanish silver coin, the peso, an eight-real coin, 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 is the reason for the name of that nation's currency. The word dollar was in use in the English language for the thaler for about 200 years prior to the American Revolution. Spanish dollars, or "pieces of eight" as they were called, were in circulation in the 13 colonies that became the United States and legal tender in Virginia.

The dollar was also in use in Scotland during the 17th century, and there is a claim that it was invented at the University of St Andrews.

The dollar symbol

Evolution of the modern dollar symbols.

The origin of the "$" sign has been variously accounted for. Perhaps the most widely accepted explanation, according to the U.S. Bureau of Engraving and Printing, is that it is the result of the evolution of the Mexican or Spanish "P^s" for pesos, or piastres, or pieces of eight (there is also a separate theory that the dollar sign derives from the number 8). This theory, derived from a study of old manuscripts, explains that the floating "S" gradually came to be written over the "P," developing a close equivalent at the top to a distinct "$" mark. Subsequently, a single vertical stroke in place of the "P" became all that was necessary in written form. The symbol was widely used before the adoption of the United States dollar in 1785.

Currency bags issued by the US Mint were marked with a similar sign of superimposed letters. The letters U and S superimposed resemble the historical double stroke "$" sign. This double stroke dollar sign has been used to refer to US Currency.

The dollar symbol is the only currency mark defined in the 7-bit ASCII computer character set. Other character sets contain other currency signs in addition to the dollar.