Dollar, Pound, Euro, and Yen

I’m naturally curious.  Well, not about everything.  My curiosity leads me more toward the impersonal and insignificant, things like why bicycle tires, which are thin by comparison, can be pumped up with nearly double the pounds per square inch as thick, tough automobile tires.

In fact, car tires have a burst pressure of about 200 psi and bike tires bust at a much lower psi. So why not pump up car tires to 80 to 100 psi? Less footprint on the road means therefore less control for steering and braking. Also, you may lose a few fillings when you hit a pothole.

But, I don’t want to talk about tires.  I want to talk about money and specifically, why is $ the dollar sign and why is U.S. money called a dollar? And how about € for the Euro and ¥ and £?

For the dollar, the tale is a little convoluted.  Remember the vast territory that is now the United States was at one time or another ruled by European powers, with a mix of currencies accepted thoughout. 

Knowing that, you can imagine the name dollar and the sign $ came from a couple of different sources. You’re right.  Dollar is a corruption of Thaler, a currency used in the middle of the 16^thCentury, in central Europe, and by several widespread European countries, including the Netherlands with their Leeuwendaler.  The Leeuwendaler was distributed throughout the thirteen colonies.  Don’t forget New York was once New Amsterdam.  

Lots of world currencies are called the dollar, Canada and Australia to name two. The U.S. adopted the $ from a variety of symbols for the Mexican Peso, another currency once found around the colonies.  The stripe or stripes through the middle of the dollar symbol kept it from being mistaken for an S.

A side note:  Dollars are green because when U.S. money was first printed, green ink was plentiful and also green was thought to be a color symbolizing stability.

On to the ¥.  The Japanese name, Yen, is taken from China and derived from symbols in each language, meaning round.  Portuguese traders corrupted the correct pronunciation, pronouncing it Ye.   The Yen was the first common currency in Japan and was first circulated in 1871.  ¥ is a shared symbol for both the Japanese Yen and the Chinese currency, the Yuan.

Here’s why Britain’s currency is called the Pound Sterling and why its symbol is £.  As you might guess, the Pound Sterling was once the value of one pound of Sterling Sliver.  The L symbol comes from the Latin word for pound, libra. The stripe though the middle separates it from L. Like the dollar, many other currencies are called Pounds.  And by the way, the Latin Libra is also why the weight, pounds, is often identified by the symbol lbs.

Finally, let’s look at why the symbol for the Euro is €.  The name Euro is obviously a shortened version of Euro Zone, but what about the symbol?

The symbol is from the Greek letter Epsilon, and was picked because Greece is considered the cradle of European civilization. The double slashes through the middle are to symbolize stability.

Another note:  Do all countries in the European Union use the Euro.  No, but 19 out of 27 do.  Also, some countries not in the European Union use the Euro.

A side note:  Most people, including many Americans refer to the U.S. as a young country.  True, considering the Treaty of Paris (1783) officially ended The War for Independence, separating us from Britain.  But, did you know that Germany was not a country until 1871, at the end of the Franco-Prussian War?  Italy became Italy in 1861.  France was fractured as much as any country, so the date is in shadows, but people commonly began to refer to themselves as French around 1600.  Charles V, Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire quipped, “I speak Spanish to God, Italian to women, French to men, and German to my horse.” The French Republic was established in 1792.