The Mason County journal. [volume] (Shelton, W.T.) 1886-1927, 1890-05-30
DOLLARS, DIMES, CENTS.
Interesting Information About the Coins o.
II.,ito

Interesting Information About the Coins Of
| the United States.
There are some interesting things
about the coins of the United States,
and their names and signs, which are
not generally known. How many per-
sons are aware, for instance, of the deri-
walton of the word dollar" the name of
the unit of our coinage? Many people
fancy, from the fact that Spanish milled
dollars" are commonly known to have
been the beginning of our currency,
that we derived the word as we'll as the
coin from the Spanish. This is not by
any means the fact. What we know as
the Spanish dollar has always been
known as the Spanish peso. "Dollar" is
an English word, as old as King Edward
VI 1t is used by Shakespeare in Mac
beth"
The word is derived from the German,
and in very curious way. In that
language the word Is 'thaler," which is
pronounced much as if our word were
begun with instead of d.. but
''thaler" is only corruption of the very
formidable term "Joachimsthaler gulden
groschpfennig," which means ''the
golden-groat penny of the Valley of
Joachim"
Joachimsthal, or the Vale of Joachim,
Is valley in Bohemia where silver was
mined in the fifteenth century. OF this
silver a coin was made, and as people
like to know their coins by short
name, the long term that we have given
was first shortened to "Joachimsthaler,"
and then to ''thaler."
The coin passed into Great Britain,
and with it the name, which was angli-
cized into dollar" and our colonial an
cestors called the Spanish peso dollar
because they hid been accustomed to
speak of large silver coins by that name.
Several accounts are given of the
origin of the dollar-mark s. Some au-
thorities say that it came from the term
"pieces of eight" which was once APP
piled by the colonists to the peso, be-
cause it contained eight reals, the 'tS''
being simply the survival of the old
fashioned way Of making the figure 8.
Others maintain that it is an imitation
OF the picture of the pilla of Hercules
on the Spanish dollar" around which
serpents were entwined.
Still another explanation, and per-
haps the most commonly accepted one,
Is that the mark is derived from
blending OF the initials gu. S." the
IS" being made across the gu"
The word 'dime," which goes we'll
with dollar" is not much employed in
our reckoning. We prefer to use the
long term ''ten-cent piece" though the
coin bears the word ''dime'' on its re-
verse and always has borne it. 1t is de-
rived from the Latin decimus, a tenth,
through the French dime, meaning a
1.-THE or tenth. This word, too, has been
in the English language long time,
though in the sense of 1.-THE, and not
as the name of coin.
The word ''cent" is from the Latin,
also; it signifies hundredth part The
dollar, however, is not the only unit of
value, which is divided into cents; the
Ceylon rupee and the Austrian form,
the French franc, the Italian Ira and
many other coins are SO divided. In
several countries of South and Central
America, where the peso is divided, like
our dollar, into hundred parts, the
P~' W NV CoAAOU CCfcoUCVo, dLo tu0 IcuCu
ce7tsne is the hundredth part of a
franc, equal to about one-ffth of our
cent.
1t Is singular fact that altb ough our
decimal coinage of dollars, dimes and
cents was adopted at the very beginning
OF the republic, the people through the
greater part of the country continued
for more than half a century to do their
ordinary reckoning by shillings.
The shilling had no longer any exist
enoe as an America coin. 1t was a pure
ly fanciful standard; in New York it
was equivalent to twelve and one-half |
cents and in New England to sixteen
and two-thirds cents, and it had and |
still has, other values in still other |
States.
Reckoning by shillingsfs still kept up,
In partial way, in many parts of the
country, and even in the great cities. |
In New England, at least, it is still COM
mon to hear men say mine shillings,"
instead of dollar and half. The sur
vival of this custom proves the extraor-
binary tenacity with which the Anglo
Saxon mind clings to an ancient usage. |
Youths Companion.