Why “Talero”?
A coin that named the dollar
Joachimsthaler
Mr. Talero takes his name from that coin. In Italian it was the tallero; the old silver Maria Theresa thaler is still struck with the date 1780 on it. A channel about where money comes from could hardly have a better name.
Tap the coin to flip it
The coin from the valley
In 1516 miners found rich silver deposits in a valley of the Ore Mountains in Bohemia, today Jáchymov in the Czech Republic. The town that grew there was named for Saint Joachim: Joachimsthal, “Joachim's valley”. From around 1520 its mint struck a large silver coin of about 29 grams. People called it a Joachimsthaler, a coin “from Joachim's valley”, and soon simply a taler or thaler.
The coin was copied across Europe. The word traveled with it: daler in Low German, daalder in Dutch, tolar in Czech and Slovene, tallero in Italian, and dollar in English by about 1600. English speakers in the Americas also called the Spanish eight-real coin, the “piece of eight”, a dollar. When the United States set up its own money in 1792, it chose the dollar and based it on that Spanish coin.
One thaler never stopped being made. Every Maria Theresa thaler struck since the empress died carries the date 1780, and the Austrian Mint still makes them.
Who is Mr. Talero?
Mr. Talero is the host of the channel: an illustrated character in a charcoal suit and an open collar, who reads the filing so you don't have to. He has no stock to sell you, no course and no newsletter. He explains how money works, using the documents behind the headlines.
The channel is English-only and covers three kinds of stories: why big companies fail, what is happening to prices, rates and housing, and how ordinary savers can protect what they have.
Sources for this page
- Thaler and dollar etymology: “Thaler” and “Dollar”, Wikipedia, with their cited references.
- First minting in Joachimsthal: Radio Prague International, “Predecessor of US dollar minted 500 years ago in Jáchymov”.
- Maria Theresa thaler: “Maria Theresa thaler”, Wikipedia.
Historians date the first strikes between 1518 and January 1520, depending on whether trial coins are counted.