THE BIRTH OF THE DOLLAR

 
Jáchymov's Royal Mint House museum

After more than 230 years, the US stopped minting the penny this week. But long before that, the first dollar was coined – and it was created in a one-road town far away from the USA.

The US dollar is the most widely used currency in the world. It is both the primary de facto global tender and the world's unofficial gold standard. According to the Federal Reserve, 58% of the planet's financial reserves are held in US dollars – more than double the total foreign holdings of euros, yen and renminbi combined. Thirty-one nations have either adopted it as their official currency or named their money after it; 65 countries peg the value of their currencies to it; and it's now accepted in places as far-flung as North Korea, Siberia and research stations on the North Pole.

Yet, one place where the dollar is not accepted is in the tiny Czech town of Jáchymov ­– which is ironic, because it was here, tucked deep into the wooded folds of Bohemia's Krušné hory mountains, where the dollar originated more than 500 years ago in 1520. But as I pulled a George Washington one-dollar bill from my wallet in Jáchymov's 16th-Century Royal Mint House museum, the very spot where the dollar's earliest ancestors were coined, docent Jan Francovic smiled and stopped me.

"I haven't seen one of these in a long time," he said, calling over two colleagues. "In Jáchymov, we only accept koruna, euros or sometimes Russian rubles. You're the first American to come here in more than three years."

Welcome to Jáchymov: a sleepy 2,300-person town near the Czech-German border that's both the home of the dollar and the home of no dollars. Chances are you've never heard of the place. You probably didn't know that it is part of a Unesco World Heritage site. And you likely never realised that the currency that powers the free world originated in this one-road town still reeling from the collapse of communism that has more brothels than banks.

Long before Jáchymov existed, the rolling mountains separating modern-day Bohemia and Saxony were ruled by wolves and bears who roamed its virgin forests. When vast quantities of silver were discovered in 1516, enterprising local nobleman Count Hieronymus Schlick christened the area Joachimsthal ("Joachim's valley") after Jesus' grandfather, the local patron saint of miners.

"At the time, Europe was a continent of city-states with local rulers vying for power," explained local historian Jaroslav Ochec. "With no standard monetary unit among them, one of the most effective ways rulers could assert their control was to mint their own currency, and that's what Schlick did."

 
The first thaler had an image of Joachim and the Bohemian lion

The governing Bohemian Diet officially granted Schlick permission to mint his silver coins on 9 January 1520. The count stamped an image of Joachim on the front, the Bohemian lion on the back, and named his new currency "Joachimsthalers" – which soon became shortened to "thalers".

In an age when the metal content of coins was the sole determinant of value, Schlick did two smart things to ensure the thalers' spread and survival. First, he made the thaler the same weight and diameter as the 29.2g Guldengroschen coin used throughout much of central Europe, which made it easier for neighbouring kingdoms to accept it. More importantly, he minted more coins than the world had ever seen.

In just 10 years, Joachimsthal transformed from a 1,050-person hamlet to the largest mining centre in Europe – a bustling 18,000-person hub with 1,000 silver mines employing 8,000 miners. By 1533, Joachimsthal was the second-largest city in Bohemia after Prague, and by the mid-16th Century, Urban estimated that some 12 million thalers minted from these mountains had spread across Europe – far more than any other currency on the continent.

To read the complete article, see:
The Czech town that invented the dollar (https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20200107-welcome-to-jchymov-the-czech-town-that-invented-the-dollar)

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