The Lion Silver Coin that Carried a Name

A Name from a Valley

New York was originally New Amsterdam. The name of its financial center, Wall Street, also derives from the site of a defensive wall built by the Dutch. And the word "dollar" that we use is another part of this Dutch legacy.

The origin of this word can be traced to a valley in Bohemia, in the heart of Europe. The large silver coins struck in that valley were called "Thalers," after the valley's name.

A Word Given Form in the Low Countries

As the name Thaler traveled from country to country, it was adapted into the local language. In the language of the Low Countries, it became "Daalder," and in English mouths, "dollar." English records show the form "daler" appearing around 1550, changing to "dollar" around 1600.

The word did more than just change its form. The rebellious republic born in the Low Countries began striking its own "Leeuwendaalder," or Lion Daalder, engraved with a lion, from 1575. This silver coin crossed the seas to become a world trade coin. The Low Countries were a relay point that gave physical form to a foreign word as its own silver coin and sent it out to the world.

A Name Carried on in the New World

The city built by the people of the Low Countries was New Amsterdam, later New York. Through this city, the people of North America came to call the silver coin engraved with a lion the "dollar."

Eventually, this word for a large silver coin came to be applied to another, more widely circulated silver coin: the Spanish eight-real coin. People called this the "Spanish dollar." The United States did not yet exist, not even as a shadow. But even before independence, the name of this country's currency had already been decided.

The Lion that Carried the Name, the Coin that Became the Standard

The United States established its own currency in 1792. The model at that time was not the Lion Daalder, but the Spanish eight-real coin that people called the "Spanish dollar." The United States dollar was defined based on the measured silver content of this coin.

The name Thaler, born in a Bohemian valley, was carried to the New World by the Dutch lion silver coin. That name was then passed on to the Spanish silver coin and eventually became the standard for the national unit of currency. The lion coin carried the name, and the Spanish coin became the yardstick.