The origin of the almighty dollar is in what is now the Czech Republic. In 1519, a silver mine near the town of Joachimstal (literally "Joachim's valley," from the German Tal, meaning valley) began minting a silver coin called, unimaginatively, the Joachimstaler. The coin, which was circulated widely, became better known by its clipped form, the taler. In Dutch and Low German, the initial consonant softened to become daler. English adopted this form, eventually changing its spelling to the modern dollar.

    In the American colonies, there was no standard currency. The coin that was in widest use was the Spanish Peso, known also as "Pieces of Eight" because it could be divided into eight pie-like pieces. The English colonists informally assigned the name dollar to this coin. In 1785, when the Continental Congress established U.S. currency, they adopted dollar as name for the standard unit of currency, at the suggestion of Governeur Morris and Thomas Jefferson, because the term was widely known and was not associated with any form of official English currency. (Jefferson also coined the term disme, from the French dixieme, for a tenth of a dollar. Pronounced deem, it eventually became dime.)

    The origin of the $ sign has several folkloric stories attached. One says that Thomas Jefferson invented it, perhaps as a sort of monogram for TS. Jefferson was the first to use the symbol in relation to the U.S. dollar, but this story is fanciful. Another says that originally it was U superimposed over an S, for U.S. of course. Eventually the base of the U eroded due to poor printing technology, leaving an S with two lines through it. Another says that it is a variant of a figure eight that appeared on the Spanish Peso, standing for the pieces of eight. This last is close to the truth, but not quite there.

    The Spanish royal family used on its escutcheon, two pillars (representing the Pillars of Hercules in Gibraltar and Morocco) crossed by an unfurled banner reading "Plus Ultra." This symbol appeared on the Peso, and looked much like the modern $ sign. It was adopted as a symbol for the Peso in the American colonies, and was transferred to the dollar.

    The U.S. was the first nation to adopt an official currency named the dollar. In 1797, the Bank of England began minting "dollar" coins as bank-issued currency. Other nations that have adopted the name dollar for their currency have done so in emulation of either the U.S. or this short-lived Bank of England practice.

    至高無(wú)上的美元起源于現(xiàn)今的捷克共和國(guó)。1519年，位于Joachimstal鎮(zhèn) (意為 Joachim山谷，源于德語(yǔ)“Tal”為“山谷”)附近的一座銀礦開(kāi)始制造銀幣，銀幣的名稱(chēng)，不假思索的取名為Joachimster，這種銀幣廣泛流通，后來(lái)名稱(chēng)簡(jiǎn)化為“taler”，變的更加有名。在荷蘭及德國(guó)南方，taler一詞開(kāi)頭的輔音常常軟化而變成 “daler”。英語(yǔ)采用了這一形式，最終其拼寫(xiě)為現(xiàn)在的 “dollar”一詞的形式。

    在美國(guó)殖民地，以前沒(méi)有標(biāo)準(zhǔn)的貨幣。最廣泛使用的是西班牙比索，也稱(chēng)之為 “八片幣”，因?yàn)樗�可以分成包子狀的八塊。英國(guó)殖民主義者把這種錢(qián)幣非正式的稱(chēng)為dollar(元)。1785年，美洲殖民地大會(huì)確定了美國(guó)貨幣，他們根據(jù)毛里求斯總督和托馬斯.杰弗遜的建議把dollar(美元) 作為標(biāo)準(zhǔn)貨幣單位名稱(chēng)。因?yàn)閐ollar 一詞已廣為人知，它與任何形式的英國(guó)官方貨幣無(wú)關(guān)。（杰弗遜還命名了硬幣角（disme）, 起源于法語(yǔ)dixieme, 作為一美元的十分之一，發(fā)音為“deem”， 最終演變?yōu)閐ime）

    美元的符號(hào)$的起源與好幾種民間傳說(shuō)有關(guān)。一種說(shuō)法是：它是由托馬斯? 杰弗遜發(fā)明的，為T(mén)S交織字母的標(biāo)記。杰弗遜首次將這符號(hào)與美元聯(lián)系起來(lái)，但這種說(shuō)法未免有點(diǎn)荒誕。另一種說(shuō)法是：原來(lái)是字母U加在字母S上，當(dāng)然代表U.S.（美國(guó)）。后來(lái)由于印刷技術(shù)差的緣故，U的底部未印出來(lái)，結(jié)果就剩下兩條豎杠在字母S上。還有一種說(shuō)法是，它是數(shù)字“8”的變體，“8”曾經(jīng)出現(xiàn)在西班牙比索上，代表“八片幣”。這最后一種說(shuō)法與事實(shí)相近，但也不能令人信服。

    西班牙皇室將$這一符號(hào)用在飾有紋章的盾牌上，兩個(gè)柱子（代表大力神在直布羅陀和摩洛哥的兩根柱子）與一面招展的旗幟相交，有“超級(jí)”的含義。這一符號(hào)出現(xiàn)在比索上，很像今天$這一符號(hào)。在美洲殖民地，它被用來(lái)作為比索的符號(hào)，后來(lái)轉(zhuǎn)用來(lái)代表美元。

    美國(guó)是第一個(gè)將官方貨幣命名為“元”的國(guó)家。1797年，英國(guó)銀行開(kāi)始鑄造面值為“元”的硬幣，作為銀行發(fā)行的貨幣。其他國(guó)家相繼采用“元”作為他們的貨幣，他們不是模仿美國(guó)就是模仿壽命不長(zhǎng)的英國(guó)銀行的做法。