The origin of the almighty dollar is in what is now the Czech Republic. In 1519, a silver mine near the town of Joachimstal (literally "Joachim's valley," from the German Tal, meaning valley) began minting a silver coin called, unimaginatively, the Joachimstaler. The coin, which was circulated widely, became better known by its clipped form, the taler. In Dutch and Low German, the initial consonant softened to become daler. English adopted this form, eventually changing its spelling to the modern dollar.

    In the American colonies, there was no standard currency. The coin that was in widest use was the Spanish Peso, known also as "Pieces of Eight" because it could be divided into eight pie-like pieces. The English colonists informally assigned the name dollar to this coin. In 1785, when the Continental Congress established U.S. currency, they adopted dollar as name for the standard unit of currency, at the suggestion of Governeur Morris and Thomas Jefferson, because the term was widely known and was not associated with any form of official English currency. (Jefferson also coined the term disme, from the French dixieme, for a tenth of a dollar. Pronounced deem, it eventually became dime.)

    The origin of the $ sign has several folkloric stories attached. One says that Thomas Jefferson invented it, perhaps as a sort of monogram for TS. Jefferson was the first to use the symbol in relation to the U.S. dollar, but this story is fanciful. Another says that originally it was U superimposed over an S, for U.S. of course. Eventually the base of the U eroded due to poor printing technology, leaving an S with two lines through it. Another says that it is a variant of a figure eight that appeared on the Spanish Peso, standing for the pieces of eight. This last is close to the truth, but not quite there.

    The Spanish royal family used on its escutcheon, two pillars (representing the Pillars of Hercules in Gibraltar and Morocco) crossed by an unfurled banner reading "Plus Ultra." This symbol appeared on the Peso, and looked much like the modern $ sign. It was adopted as a symbol for the Peso in the American colonies, and was transferred to the dollar.

    The U.S. was the first nation to adopt an official currency named the dollar. In 1797, the Bank of England began minting "dollar" coins as bank-issued currency. Other nations that have adopted the name dollar for their currency have done so in emulation of either the U.S. or this short-lived Bank of England practice.

    至高無上的美元起源于現今的捷克共和國。1519年，位于Joachimstal鎮 (意為 Joachim山谷，源于德語“Tal”為“山谷”)附近的一座銀礦開始制造銀幣，銀幣的名稱，不假思索的取名為Joachimster，這種銀幣廣泛流通，后來名稱簡化為“taler”，變的更加有名。在荷蘭及德國南方，taler一詞開頭的輔音常常軟化而變成 “daler”。英語采用了這一形式，最終其拼寫為現在的 “dollar”一詞的形式。

    在美國殖民地，以前沒有標準的貨幣。最廣泛使用的是西班牙比索，也稱之為 “八片幣”，因為它可以分成包子狀的八塊。英國殖民主義者把這種錢幣非正式的稱為dollar(元)。1785年，美洲殖民地大會確定了美國貨幣，他們根據毛里求斯總督和托馬斯.杰弗遜的建議把dollar(美元) 作為標準貨幣單位名稱。因為dollar 一詞已廣為人知，它與任何形式的英國官方貨幣無關。（杰弗遜還命名了硬幣角（disme）, 起源于法語dixieme, 作為一美元的十分之一，發音為“deem”， 最終演變為dime）

    美元的符號$的起源與好幾種民間傳說有關。一種說法是：它是由托馬斯? 杰弗遜發明的，為TS交織字母的標記。杰弗遜首次將這符號與美元聯系起來，但這種說法未免有點荒誕。另一種說法是：原來是字母U加在字母S上，當然代表U.S.（美國）。后來由于印刷技術差的緣故，U的底部未印出來，結果就剩下兩條豎杠在字母S上。還有一種說法是，它是數字“8”的變體，“8”曾經出現在西班牙比索上，代表“八片幣”。這最后一種說法與事實相近，但也不能令人信服。

    西班牙皇室將$這一符號用在飾有紋章的盾牌上，兩個柱子（代表大力神在直布羅陀和摩洛哥的兩根柱子）與一面招展的旗幟相交，有“超級”的含義。這一符號出現在比索上，很像今天$這一符號。在美洲殖民地，它被用來作為比索的符號，后來轉用來代表美元。

    美國是第一個將官方貨幣命名為“元”的國家。1797年，英國銀行開始鑄造面值為“元”的硬幣，作為銀行發行的貨幣。其他國家相繼采用“元”作為他們的貨幣，他們不是模仿美國就是模仿壽命不長的英國銀行的做法。