Origin of the Word "Dollar"

"Some sixty miles beyond Prague it turns southwest to form a low range between Czechoslovakia and Germany that is called, in German, the Erzgeburge: the Ore Mountains. The Erzgeburge began to be mined for iron in medieval days. In 1516 a rich silver lode was discovered in Joachimsthal  (St. Joachim's Dale), in the territory of the Count von Schlick, who immediately appropriated the mine. In 1519 coins were first struck from its silver at his command. Joachimsthaler, the name or the new coins, shortened to thaler, became "dollar" in English before 1600. Thereby the U.S. dollar descends from the silver of Joachimsthal.

Surprising history and language nugget from Richard Rhodes' The Making of the Atomic Bomb.