The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1900-10-05
THE DOLLAR.
History of a Term That Has Become
Worldwide,

Worldwide.
Our word dollar dates back to 1855.
when a resolution was passed by con-
gress which provided that it should
be the unit Of money of the United
States. Another resolution was passed
in 1885, August 5, providing that it
should weigh 1854 grains of pure sill
YER The mint was established in 1892,
and then required to coin silver dollars
containing 371.25 grains of pure silver.
This was due to the influence of Alex
ander Hamilton. No dollars were
coined until 1894, and then irregular.
They are now worth $500 each. In 1894
the coinage of regular dollars began.
Our coin was the adaptation of the
Spanish milled dollar, a coin very pop
uIar wherever the Spaniards travelled.
The coin was called "piastre," meaning
a nat piece of metal; it is synonymous
with plaster. 1t is supposed that the
Spanish took the German thaler" and
called it by TIE name of plaster" The
word dollar is entered in Baileys Eng
lish Dictionary of 1745, and was used
repeatedly by Shakespeare at the be-
ginning of the seventeenth century, es-
peciaily in Macbeth II: 2, 81: ''Till she
disDursed $4,000 to our general use"
and in Tempest" II: l, II. The ques-
ton where Shakespeare found the word
dollar is answered by the fact that the
Hanseatic towns maintained a great es-
Enlistment called the Steel Yard in
London. The Steel Yard merchants
were mostly North Germans, who
would call tie German thaler as if it
spelled "dah-ler" The same merchants
originated the word sterling, an alb
breviation of the word "esterling." AS
the Hanseatic trade was particularly
brisk on the Baltic and in Russia, the
standard coins Of the Hanse merchants
were called esterlings, and sterling
came to mean something genuine and
desirable. The world dollar is the
English for thaler, the first of which
was coined about 1885, and corresponds
quite closely to our present American
silver dollars. The word thaler means
coming from a dale or valley" the
first dollar having been coined in b.
hemian valley called Foachimisthal. 1t
was under Charles ", the emperor OF
Germany, King of Spain and Lord of
Spanish America, that the German tha-
Ter became the coin OF the world
Golden Thoughts.
Wane of Chinese Exclusiveness.
The commencement of the establish
ment OF the so-called spheres of in
fluence" in China was in 1897. when
the Germans seized the Port of Kiau-
Chau, on the east coast of Shantaung,
and during the next month secured
from the Chinese a lease for ninety
nine years of the town, harbor, and
district. Two months later Russia got
| possession of Port Arthur and Talien-
wan, with their adjacent waters, on a
lease for twenty-five years, with the
privilege of renewal Within the
boundaries of the leased Territory,
which are as yet underlined, Russia
has supreme control. Port Arthur
harbor and the larger portion OF the
harbor Talienwan are therefore closed
to all except the war vessels of Russia
and China. In June, 1898. Great Brit.
ain took possession OF Wei-Hai-W We
and is to hold the pert as long as Rus.
STA holds Port Arthur. Finally. thC
French in April. 1898. secured q
lease" Of Kwang -chau-wan Bay. or
the east coast OF the Tien-Chau Pen
..suia-