Theresa thalers were in common use in Aden and some other parts of the Middle East as recently as the 1960s. Probably the most famous thaler coins were those minted during the reign of Maria Theresa, Archduchess of Austria and queen of Hungary and Bohemia (1740-80). That is why, after the United States gained its independence the new nation chose "dollar" as the name of its currency instead of keeping the pound. Those coins, particularly the Spanish peso or dollar circulated widely in Britain's North American colonies because of a shortage of official British coins. Today we are familiar with the phrase pieces of eight from tales of pirates in the Caribbean. Both these large silver coins were practically identical in weight and fineness. Later on, the English version of the name (dollar) was also applied to similar coins, not only ones minted in central Europe but also the Spanish peso and the Portuguese eight-real piece. Thaler is a shortened form of the term by which the coin was originally known - Joachimsthaler. (Today the town of Joachimsthal lies within the borders of the Czech republic and its Czech name is Jáchymov). It is an Anglicised form of "thaler", (pronounced taler, with a long "a"), the name given to coins first minted in 1519 from locally mined silver in Joachimsthal in Bohemia.
The word dollar is much older than the American unit of currency. The history of the dollar is a story involving many countries in different continents. Origin and history of the Word Dollar and Dollar Sign The Word "Dollar" and the Dollar Sign $ Origins, History and Geography of Dollar Currencies See also