Idaho semi-weekly world. [volume] (Idaho City, Idaho Territory) 1875-1908, 1890-05-30
DOLLARS. DIMES. cEnrs.
Interesting Information About the Coins D
the United States,

fA<HSA ~stAtsk Ahtofzha1fGN ABOUT the Coins of
the Uuited 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 uer-
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 n1iIIed
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, az old as King Edward
VI It is used by Shakespeare In Mac
BETH
The word is derived from the German,
ana In very curious way. In that
language the word Is sthaler,D which is
pronounced much as If our word were
begun with instead Of q d: but
| "thaler'' is only corruption OF the very
! formidable term "JoachinsthaIer rulden
/ groschpfennig,, which means s.the
golden-groat penny Of the Valley Of
/ Joachim
ccesytiAh1ohidtt VI THIS d1t5 Oh u Joachim.
/ is a valley in Bohemia where silver was
mined in the fifteenth century. OF this
silver a coin was made, and az people
like to know their coins by a short
name, the long term that we have given
was first shortened to .sJoaehinsthaler, -
and then to "thaler.n
The coin passed into Great Britain,
and with it the name, which was angli-
cized into dollar" and our colonial an
cestofs called the Spanish peso dollar
because they had been accustomed to
! speak of large silver coins by that name.
Several accounts are given of the
I origin of the dollar-mark S. Some au-
| thorities say that it came from the term
I pieces of eight which was once APP
I piled by the colonists to the peso, be-
| cause it contained eight reals, the
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 a
blending of the initials .sU. S. the
50 being made across the ''U.''
! The word dime" which goes well
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 it's re-
verse and always has borne It 1t is de-
| rived from the Latin decinus, 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 a hundred parts, the
parts are called ceatdpos, and the French
ce8staHe is the hundredth part of 3
franc, equal to about one-ffth of ouI
cent
1t is singular fact that although oul
decimal coinage of dollars. dimes ant
] NCAto " dS 6AO BLt0 ~ blAc NCL DCE
of the republic, the people through tbs
greater part of the country continued
for more than half century to do theil
ordinary reckoning by shillings.
The shilling had no longer any exist
ence as an America coin 1t was pure
~ fanciful standard; in New York i
was equivalent to twelve and one-hal.
cents and in New England to sixteer
and two thirds cents, and it had anC
still has, other values in still othel
States.
Reckoning by shillingsfs still kept up
In partial way, in many parts of th'
country, and even in the great cities
In New England, at least, it is still com
mon to hear men say mine shil1ings,
instead of a dollar and half. The sur
vtyal of this custom proves the extraor
binary tenaeity with which the Anglo
Saxon mind clings to an ancient usage
Youths ompanion.