The news feeds on this site are independently provided by Adfero Limited © and do not represent the views or opinions of the World Gold Council.

Friday, 23rd July 2010 (713 views)

Alexander Hamilton, the man responsible for naming the $10 gold coin as an "Eagle", found greater success there than in his suggestion for naming the American currency as a whole, reports Numismatic News.

In a Q&A column for the publication, Alan Herbert explains that Hamilton chose the name - but was also faced with the problem of how to select a distinctive name for the currency.

This led him to moot "unit" as a potential name for America's monetary standard when legislation was passed in 1792.

"Although there are numerous references to this choice for the dollar, I haven't been able to find one that explains the exact reasoning," admits Mr Herbert.

But the desire for a distinctive moniker seems to be a likely explanation for why the dollar was almost called "unit".

The wording of the 1792 Coinage Act actually allows for either term to be applied to the base unit of the US currency, although it uses dollar elsewhere in the Act when referring to the standard denomination.

 

« Back to Gold News stories