Jan Kijlstra said:

> By the way: the word "dollar" comes from the Dutch word "Daalder"
> and the German word "Taler".

The thaler (Eng. pronunciation "taaler") was a very large coin minted in
the Middle Ages of a now unknown silver alloy which never tarnished.  It
usually had some symbolic scene on it or a picture relating to a legend.

This connected it to its forebear, also called a thaler, which was a
staff with six or eight scenes from a fable or parable, usually carved
in wood with metal trimmings.  The purpose of these was to remind a
story-teller of all the detail of the tale he was telling, in the days
when few people could read.

The meaning of "thaler", was, therefore, a "tale-r" or "teller".  Very
simple and straightforward.

Dan Wilson

 [ My 7 kg dictionary says that "thaler" is an abbreviation of
 [ Joachimsthaler [Joachim's valley], a piece of money first coined
 [ about 1518 in the valley of St. Joachim in Bohemia.  The word
 [ "ta'ler" is shown as a varient of "thaler"; however, the dictionary
 [ also says that "tal'er" is "one who tales, or tells stories."  Same
 [ spelling but different pronunciation, therefore apparently different
 [ origins.  Fascinating...  :)  -- Robbie