Show I I ORIGIN ORIGIN OF THE DOLLAR I The Tho word dollar Is the form torm of ot the German word thaler The origin of the word thither thaler Is as follows In tho the year 1519 Count of ot B Bohemia Bo hernia hemia issued silver sliver coins weighing ono ounce each and worth cents They were wera coined at that is James James' valley or 01 dale In Bohemia hence honce they became known as Boon soon shortened into On each coin was the figure of or St. St James Through trade with the Dutch these coins came Into England In the sixteenth century and are arc referred to sometimes as dalere dal ers ere Th The word dollar Is found round In Shakespeare's Shake Shake- L 2 speare's eares eare's Macbeth act L. L scene weno the Norway's king craves composition com coin position Nor would we design him burial of ot his men menTill menTill Till Tnt he disbursed at St. St Colmes Inch Ten thousand dollars to our general use But the dollar caine came to the American continent not through h th the Dutch or English Eng Eng- lish but through the tho Spanish This was wa-s due to tho the extent of the Spanish empire In tho sixteenth and seventeenth centuries centuries cen con tunes and also to the Jr great groat at quantities of or sliver silver which Spain drew from her mines in Mexico and South America The Spanish coin was strictly speaking a peso Deso better bettor known as a a. piece of ot el eight ht because It was as equal to eight reals royals royals royals roy roy- als As It was of ot tho the same samp value the name dollar was given to the piece of eight about tho the year lr 1690 The Tho most famous ramous Spanish dollar was known knon as the pillar dol dollar hAl because It had on one ono side two t pillars representing represent represent- Ins inc the pillars of or Hercules the tho classical name for tor the tho straits of ot Gibraltar It had also the motto plus ultra The old form torm of ot this was no plus plu ultra but owing to Columbus' Columbus discovery of or AmerIca America Amer Amer- ica ica- this had to be he changed This dollar was known as the cannon dollar by tho the Moors who mistook the tho pillars for fOl can can- non It Is thought b by sonic some that the two pillars on this dollar lollar me ore the tho orgin of or the thc upright Hues lines In Iu the dollar mark Other sU suggestions are that the mark represents represents represents rep rep- resents P. P S. S that S.-that that Is Is tho the Spanish peso or possibly U S. S combined Most It represents probably however ho tho the sl sign n for the Roman noman unit of or money tho the s Tho rho sign was II S 5 and meant two t and a half halt because a sester sester- tius was equal to two and a a. half halt asses the tho an being another Roman coin This Spanish dollar was current for a time even In Australia It was as common In America at toe the time of or the war of ot Independence The Tho of or tho the United States dollar Is well known Imo A dollar unit was waR fixed b by byan byan an act art of or congress s In 1792 Tha first sliver sil silver sliver sli- sli ver dollar was i coined In 1794 Bv Dr an act net of IS 1819 19 th the of sold gold old dollars was waa ordered and in 1873 the gold Jold dollar was made tho thir unit of r value In 1878 1378 thu the silver sliver dollar was T as remone- remone t d and from that date there were two standards It was as as In this agitation that the silver dollar got Jol the Ule name of ot the dollar of or the Uhe fathers soon turned Into the dollar of ot the daddies New dl New York Sun |