Blanks were weighed before the dollars were struck and overweight pieces were filed to remove excess silver. Varieties listed are those most significant to collectors, but numerous minor variations may be found because each of the early dies was individually made. It was only natural therefore that the word “dollar” was adopted officially as the standard monetary unit of the United States by Congress on July 6, 1785. The Spanish Dollar, or piece-of-eight, was widely used and familiar to everyone in the English-American colonies. All these names are abbreviations of “Joachimsthaler.” Until the discovery of the great silver deposits in Mexican and South American mines, the mint with the greatest output of large silver coins was that of Joachimsthal in the Bohemiam Erzgebirge. So popular did these large silver coins become during the 16th century that many other countries struck similar pieces, giving them names derived from “thaler.” In the Netherlands the coin was called Rijksdaaler, in Denmark Rigsdaler, in Italy Itallero, in Poland Tolar, in France Jocandale, in Russia Jefimik. Designed as a substitute for the gold Florin, the coin originated in the Tyorl in 1484. The word Dollar evolves from the German Thaler, the same name given to the first large-sized European silver coin.
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