The basic unit of money in the United States and some other countries. It is often represented by the symbol '$'.
From early Dutch 'daler' and German 'Taler', short for 'Joachimstaler', a silver coin first made in Joachimstal (now in the Czech Republic) in the 1500s. English speakers adapted the word to 'dollar'. The name stuck and later became the official name of various national currencies.
The American dollar is named after a European mining town you’ve probably never heard of—Joachimstal. The famous '$' sign may come from a stylized 'Ps' for 'peso', which early Americans also used. So the symbol of modern capitalism is stitched together from old European and Spanish money habits.
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