Around 1518, a huge silver strike was made in Bavaria at Joachimstal (Joachims Dale) (pronounced Daler). A large silver coin was struck bearing an effigy of Saint Joachim on the obverse. In "high" German areas the new coins were referred to as thalers and people in "low" German areas called them dalers. English speaking visitors took some back to their countries and referred to them as dollars. Spanish coins of the period carried the Pillars of Hercules (the two giant rocks flanking the Strait of Gilbralter) on their reverse and were known as pieces of eight, Spanish milled dollars, and pillar dollars. With the large silver yields in New Spain, all over Central and South America mints sprang up to strike millions upon millions of these "hard dollars" (8 reales) (Pesos Duro). As history has proved out, these large dollar coins became the choice medium of exchange in China, Hong Kong, Tibet, Africa and most of the world. (China minted taels, yuans and dollars for trade throughout the orient). In 1780 Austria struck the Maria Theresa Thaler (Levant dollar) to compete in world trade. The coin has been restruck almost every year since by various mints throughout the world all bearing the 1780 date in uncirculated and proof. Great Britain and Australia struck their own trade coinage versions of the dollar, which includes the Hong Kong Dollar. Canada adopted the dollar as their monetary unit. Some micro and island nations mint coin and paper money dahlers, talas and dalas. Here's some photos: www.worldcoingallery.com/countries/coin.php?image=nmc2/73-ab85&desc=Baden%20km85%201/6%20Thaler%20(1856) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:1733_Spanish_Dollar.jpg www.worldcoingallery.com/countries/coin.php?image=nmc2/42-318&desc=Chinese%20Empire/Republic%20y318%201%20Dollar%20(1912) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Search?search=Maria+Theresa+Thaler&fulltext=Search http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Tradedollar.jpg www.worldcoingallery.com/countries/coin.php?image=img12/76-T5&desc=Great%20Britain%20kmT5%201%20Dollar%20(1895-1935)%20Trade%20Dollar http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Hk_money_coins.jpg http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:WesternSamoaP26-5Tala-%281985%29_f.jpg Clinker
Thanks, Clinker, its interesting to see how those monetary systems ultimately mesh. By the way, I could (and do) spend hours in worldcoingallery.com!
Treashunt: When anyone makes a comment or adds something relevant to my trivia items, it makes my day. Clinker
Hey Clinker, Have you noticed the drastic increase in your readership over the last couple of weeks? It reminds me of one of those new TV shows that start out slow and then pick up steam until they're Seinfeld! You get more hits in 2 hours than some of my posts get in a week. So from now on,I'm going to start them like this: TRIVIA:found an old ancient piece-O-junk today by Mikjo0...:smile
