The dollar (currency code USD) is the unit of currency of the United States. The U.S. dollar has also been adopted as the official and legal currency by the governments in a few other countries. The U.S. dollar is normally abbreviated as the dollar sign, $, or as USD or US$ to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies and from others that use the $ symbol. It is divided into 100 cents.

Adopted by the Congress of the Confederation of the United States on July 6, 1785,[2] the U.S. dollar is the currency most used in international transactions.[3] Several countries use the U.S. dollar as their official currency, and many others allow it to be used in a de facto capacity.[4] In 1995, over US $380 billion were in circulation, two-thirds of which was outside the United States. By 2005, that figure had doubled to nearly $760 billion, with an estimated half to two-thirds being held overseas,[5] representing an annual growth rate of about 7.6%. However, as of December 2006, the dollar was surpassed by the euro in terms of combined value of cash in circulation.[6] Since then the current value of euro cash in circulation has risen to more than €695 billion, equivalent to US$1,029 billion at current exchange rates.[7]

The U.S. dollar uses the decimal system, consisting of 100 equal cents (symbol ¢). In another division, there are 1,000 mills or ten dimes to a dollar; additionally, the term eagle was used in the Coinage Act of 1792 for the denomination of ten dollars, and subsequently was used in naming gold coins. In the second half of the 19th century there were occasional discussions of creating a $50 gold coin, which was referred to as a "Half Union," thus implying a denomination of 1 Union = $100. However, only cents are in everyday use as divisions of the dollar; "dime" is used solely as the name of the coin with the value of 10¢, while "eagle" and "mill" are largely unknown to the general public, though mills are sometimes used in matters of tax levies and gasoline prices. When currently issued in circulating form, denominations equal to or less than a dollar are emitted as U.S. coins while denominations equal to or greater than a dollar are emitted as Federal Reserve notes (with the exception of gold, silver and platinum coins valued up to $100 as legal tender, but worth far more as bullion). (Both one-dollar coins and notes are produced today, although the note form is significantly more common.) In the past, paper money was occasionally issued in denominations less than a dollar (fractional currency) and gold coins were issued for circulation up to the value of $20.

U.S. coins are produced by the United States Mint. U.S. dollar banknotes are printed by the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, and, since 1914, have been issued by the Federal Reserve. The "large-sized notes" issued before 1928 measured 7.42 inches (188 mm) by 3.125 inches (79.4 mm); small-sized notes, introduced that year, measure 6.14 inches (156 mm) by 2.61 inches (66 mm) by 0.0043 inches (0.11 mm).


[edit] Etymology
The name Thaler (from German thal, or nowadays usually Tal, "valley", cognate with "dale" in English) came from the German coin Guldengroschen ("great guilder", being of silver but equal in value to a gold guilder), minted from the silver from a rich mine at Joachimsthal (St. Joachim's Valley, now Jáchymov) in Bohemia (then part of the Holy Roman Empire, now part of the Czech Republic).

For further history of the name, see dollar.


[edit] Nicknames
The colloquialism buck (much like the English "quid") is often used to refer to dollars of various nations, including the U.S. dollar. This term, dating to the 18th century, may have originated with the colonial fur trade. Greenback is another nickname originally applied specifically to the 19th century Demand Note dollars created by Abraham Lincoln to finance the costs of the Civil War for the North. The original note was printed in black and green on the back side. It is still used to refer to the U.S. dollar (and not to the dollars of other countries).

Grand, sometimes shortened to simply G, is a common term for the amount of $1,000. The suffix K (from "kilo-") is also commonly used to denote this amount (such as "$10K" being pronounced "Ten kay" to mean $10,000). Banknotes' nicknames are usually the same as their values (such as five, twenty, etc.) The $5 bill has been referred to as a "fin"[citation needed] or a "fiver" or a "five-spot"; the $10 bill as a "sawbuck,"[citation needed] a "ten-spot," or a "Hamilton"; the $20 bill as a "double sawbuck,"[citation needed] a "twomp,"[citation needed] a "twenty-banger,"[citation needed] or a "Jackson"; the $1 bill is sometimes called a "single," the $2 bill a "deuce" or a "Tom"[citation needed], and the $100 bill is nicknamed the hunsky,[citation needed] a "Benjamin," "Benjie," or "Frank" (after Benjamin Franklin, who is honored on the note), or a C-note (C being the Roman numeral for 100) or a Century Note. Occasionally these will be referred to as "dead presidents", although neither Hamilton ($10) nor Franklin ($100) were President. $100 notes are occasionally referred to as 'large' in banking ("twenty large" being $2,000, etc.). The newer designs are sometimes referred to as "Bigface" bills.

In Panama, the translation of buck is palo (lit. stick); a nickname for the balboa (dollar). For example: Esto vale 20 palos ("This is worth 20 bucks"). In Puerto Rico (as well as by Puerto Ricans living in the continental U.S.), the dollar is often referred to as a "peso."


[edit] Dollar sign
Main article: Dollar sign
The symbol $, usually written before the numerical amount, is used for the U.S. dollar (as well as for many other currencies). An example would be "$14", which is read as "fourteen dollars". The sign's ultimate origins are not certain, though it is widely accepted that it comes from the Spanish coat of arms, which carries the two Pillars of Hercules and the motto Non Plus Ultra in the shape of an "S". The Spanish were the first to use the dollar sign for their currency, which was later adopted in the US, and which was later replaced by the US dollar.

A popular theory is that the dollar sign was created when a printing press accidentally printed the U and the S overlapping, and it then evolved to look like the modern day $. However this is improbable because the dollar sign was used by the Spanish before the United States existed.


[edit] History
See also: History of the United States dollar

Rare 1934 $500 Federal Reserve Note, featuring a portrait of President William McKinley.The first dollar coins issued by the United States Mint were of the same size and composition as the Spanish dollar and even after the American Revolutionary War the Spanish and U.S. silver dollars circulated side by side in the United States. The coinage of various English colonies also circulated. The lion dollar was popular in the Dutch New Netherland Colony (New York), but the lion dollar also circulated throughout the English colonies during the Seventeenth and early Eighteenth centuries. Examples circulating in the colonies were usually fairly well worn so that the design was not fully distinguishable, thus they were sometimes referred to as "dog dollars".[8]

Private banks issued currency backed by Spanish and U.S. silver and gold coinage, although the federal government did not do so until the American Civil War.

The U.S. dollar was originally specified by the Coinage Act of 1792 to be a unit of weight (471.25 grains of troy silver (about 30.54 g of silver)) and not one of money as it is thought of today. The value of gold or silver contained in the dollar was then converted into relative value in the economy for the buying and selling of goods. This allowed the value of things to remain fairly constant over time, except for the influx and outflux of gold and silver in the nation's economy. According to an evaluation of data from the U.S. Department of Treasury, the cost of goods and services remained relatively consistent between 1635 and 1913, around a level of roughly 25 times the buying power of the U.S. dollar in 2006[citation needed].

For articles on the currencies of the colonies and states, see Connecticut pound, Delaware pound, Georgia pound, Maryland pound, Massachusetts pound, New Hampshire pound, New Jersey pound, New York pound, North Carolina pound, Pennsylvania pound, Rhode Island pound, South Carolina pound and Virginia pound.