Around 1520
In a valley with a silver mine in Bohemia, people started making large silver coins.
WORDS
The Journey of the Daalder, the Silver Coin from a Valley's Name
The daalder was a silver coin born in the Netherlands. Disliked at home, it was circulated for foreign payments, eventually transforming into the "dollar" in English parlance. This is the story of how the name of a single valley became the name of a world currency.
A 3-Minute History: The Journey of the Dollar
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Around 1520
Named after the valley, the silver coin was called the 'Thaler'.
Later
The name traveled to the lowlands and became the Dutch word 'Daalder'.
1575
During a rebellion, silver coins were made to pay for the war.
The Lion Daalder. It had no king's face or name.
From 1575
It had a low silver content and was unpopular at home.
Later
The unpopular coins were used for payments abroad and crossed the sea.
North America
In English, it became 'dollar'. Spanish silver coins were also called this.
Spanish dollar
Now
The name of a small valley became the name for money around the world.
2What would you do?
You have two silver coins in your wallet: one with a lot of silver, and one with less. Which would you use to pay someone from another country?
Pick one
The one with less silver
That's what people did back then. The Lion Daalder, unpopular at home, was used first for foreign payments and became a global trade coin.
The one with more silver
People tended to keep the better coins. That's why the unpopular coin was the one that crossed the sea and carried its name around the world.
Before the United States was even born, the name for its money was already decided.
3Read more
A Silver Coin Without a King's Name or Portrait
In 1575, in the province of Holland, then in the midst of a revolt, a silver coin was struck. Named the leeuwendaalder, or lion daalder, this coin bore neither the customary portrait of the king nor his name. It was a special silver coin issued to finance the war.
Before the appearance of this silver coin, the Netherlands had struck the Philipsdaalder, bearing the portrait of Philip II, in 1557, and added the kruisdaalder, with the Burgundian cross, in 1567. In contrast to these, the fineness of the leeuwendaalder was set lower than that of the rijksdaalder, the standard of the time.
Disliked at Home, Circulated to the World
Due to its low fineness, the leeuwendaalder was unpopular at home. For this very reason, it was preferentially used for foreign payments. Thus, as if driven from its homeland, the silver coin crossed the seas and unexpectedly came to serve as a world trade coin.
This name "daalder" eventually changed to "dollar" to suit the English tongue. And the people of North America called the Spanish silver coins they handled daily by this new name: the Spanish dollar.
A Journey Beginning in a Bohemian Valley
But where did the word "daalder" come from in the first place? Its origins can be traced back to Bohemia around 1520. In the valley of Joachimsthal, where a silver mine was located, the minting of large silver coins began in earnest. Taking the name of the valley, people called this silver coin the "thaler."
This name "thaler" flowed into the Low Countries, becoming "daalder" in the Dutch language by way of the Low German "daler." The name of a silver coin born in a distant valley became a word in the Low Countries, then crossed the sea and transformed again into the English "dollar."
The Name of a Small Valley Becomes a World Currency
At the end of the journey taken by the name "thaler" lies the name "dollar," which today stands at the center of the global economy. Behind that name lie the darkness of the mine shafts in 16th-century Bohemia's St. Joachim's Valley and the sound of hammers in a silver-mining town.
It is not the name of an emperor, nor of a great nation's capital. The name of a small mountain valley became the name of a world currency. In an age when the United States did not yet exist in shadow or form, long before its independence, the name of its currency was already decided.
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The rest of the story is in the material of NOMISMA.
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