Here's a question for you travellers: What do the names of
the world's currencies mean? Are there some interesting
names that say something about the countries involved. A
couple that I find interesting are the Botswanan "Pula",
which means rain, and reflects the scarcity and the value
of rain in that country, and the Guatemalan "Quetzal",
which is named after one of the most beautiful birds in the
Central American rainforrest.
What about the meanings of "Dinar", "Escudo", "Rupee",
"Drachma", "Rand", and even "Dollar" etc.
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...our unit of exchange is called a "loonie". This is
derived from an old Mohawk Indian phrase, "looha ha niyah",
which means "now worth only a mere fraction of its American
counterpart".
means "shield". Both in spanish and portuguese. It┤s an
ancient currency. The Honduran "lempira" is named after an
indian chief. The Latin American "peso" means "weight".
Spanish "peseta" is a derivation of "peso". Venezuelan
"bolivar" is named after Simon Bolivar. Peruvian "sol" is
"sun" in english.
ion Ecuador, is named, funnily enough, after Antonio Jose
de Sucre, a general of the war of liberation.
All those names like dinar etc are from the latin denarius,
which was a unit of currency in Roman times, it is also the
root of the spanish word "dinero" meaning money.
The gold Dinar coin issued by the Caliphs of Damascus
evolved from the Latin word Denarius which was a Roman
silver coin used for trade in Alba Longa (Britain).The
symbol "d" from Denarius was later used to denote the
English penny.
In Scandinavia. These literally mean "crown" and "ear" - I
would hate to research more into the ear bit!
and the newly "euro" is named after the fellow poster above.
The Kwacha used in Malawi and Zambia translates as 'chicken'
and the (Malawi) coins actually have roosters on the heads
side. I assume that somewhere in the past chickens were a
common form of exchange in this area though tossing poultry
to decide who kicks off gives a whole new meaning to the
phrase "heads or tails".
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Is originally from the German "taler ot thaler",short for
"Joachimsthaler":Coin made from the metal mined in
Joachimsthal Jackymov,a town in Czeckoslovakia.
By the pure fact that you were not part of Shutup, I will
from now on let you express your opinions and hope that you
do not imposter those who express theirs that are different
from yours. We can show Shutup members that we are above
their tactics.
For allowing me to express my opinion without being
impostered, I will be greatly in debt to you, but it is a
debt I will pay only with the soiled and torn leftover
Kwatcha, Pula, Escudos, and Sucres which I have accumulated
over time. :-p
Escudo, the Portuguese currency,can also mean coat of arms
(escudo de armas). Which Brazilian currency name do you
wanna know? We had so many in the past 15 years: cruzeiro(
from the southern cross), cruzado (literally "crossed"or
"crusader", its the name of an ancient Portuguese coin),
cruzado novo (new cruzado),etc until the present one, the
real, which can mean "real"(big surprise, huh ?) or royal.
Your currencies in Latin America use to crack me up! I was
in Argentina as a 12 year old kid in 1975 during an era of
hyper-inflation, and I can remember walking into a candy
store to buy a candy bar or something, and use to laugh
when the price would be something like 50 thousand pesos.
People would still quote prices in old pesos, even after
the conversion(done by dropping 2 or 3 zeroes) to new
pesos.
Ethiopian Birr: Birr = Silver
PRC "Ren min bi" means "people('s) currency"
... this is commonly referred to by the counter "kuai"
meaning "piece". i.e. "Yi kuai qian" = "1 piece (of) money"
Dollar is from German "thaler" = piece of eight, I think.
Websters says it's from "Sankt Joachimsthal" Bohemia, where
talers were first made.
Rupee (and variations such as Rupiah) are from Sanskrit
"rupya" meaning "wrought silver"
The franc, common in so many countries, is apparently
derived from "Francorum Rex", meaning "King of the Franks",
which was imprinted on some early coins in that kingdom.
I think "Drachma" (and the Moroccan "dirham" are from an
ancient Greek unit of weight. This also came into English
aws the apothecaries' unit of weight *and* volume (and I'm
guessing that this is the source of "dram" as well).
I would be interested in hearing about some common
currencies such as "pound" (was it really a pound of
sterling?), Mark / marka etc.
The two peruvian currencies, the Sol and the Inti, both
actaully mean sun. The sol was the currency until (i
vaguely recall) the late seventies or early eighties, when
it collapsed. It was replaced by the Inti at a rate of
1000:1.
The Inti survived until about 1991, when it was replaced by
the new Sol, at a rate of 1000000:1.
I have a silver 1 sol coin from 1895, which is actually
fairly common, so it is only valued at about USD3. Still,
when you think about it, it is valued at three BILLION
times its face value! Not a bad investment, in a sense...
The main currency in Holland is the Dutch Florin, or
'vergulde florijn'. In short 'Gulden'. This means simple
Gold coin of Florence. (yes the italian Florence)
We also have 'Daalders', which surprisingly enough come
from Czeck republic, the Joachim's Thal. These two coins
were among a number of popular european currencies in the
middle ages and the name remained.
Please give the source for your Mohawk in post #1. I had
always understood "loonie" to be from the Micmac "luu kni",
meaning "dollar that won't clog a coin slot".
-
The name for the "twonie", with the queen on the front and a
grizzly on the back, is of course derived from the Cree term
"tuu caneek", meaning either, "rich woman with a bear
behind", or "Toronto".
on post #14. Inti means indeed "sun" as equus said but it┤s
a quechua word. Not to understand it as an spanish word.
Yes, I should have mentioned that. It was apparently a way
of keeping continuity - it had the same meaning in Peru's
two major languages.
Any other examples of this out there?
Um, anothery, the Austral was the Aregentinian
hyperinflation currency for a while. It comes from the
latin for south, as Argentina is, obviously, a southern
country.
A lot of the central american countries use "colones",
which come from the spanish spelling of Christopher
Coloumbus, "Cristobal Colon"
also comes from the latin word for weight, livra. also the
pound, pretty muh the english translation of the same thing.
indeed pounds are called 'lira' in latin countries.