On 15 January 1520, Bohemia began minting coins known as Jachymovsky Tolar, named for Jáchymov, where the silver was mined.(In German, thal or tal refers to a valley or dale.) German name "Joachimsthaler" was later shortened in common usage to taler or thaler (same pronunciation) and this shortened word eventually found its way into other languages: Czech tolar, Hungarian tallér, Danish and Norwegian (rigs) daler, Swedish (riks) daler, Icelandic dalur, Dutch (rijks) daalder or daler, Ethiopian ታላሪ ("talari"), Italiantallero, Flemish daelder, Polish Talar, Persian Dare, as well as - via Dutch - into English as dollar.
The coins minted at Jáchymov soon lent their name to other coins of similar size and weight from other places. One such example, was a Dutch coin depicting a lion, hence its Dutch name leeuwendaler (English lion daler). The Dutch Republic produced these coins to accommodate its booming international trade.
The leeuwendaler or leeuwendaalder circulated throughout the Middle East and was imitated in several German and Italian cities. Carried by Dutch traders, this coin was also popular in the Dutch East Indies and in the Dutch New Netherland Colony (New York), and circulated throughout the Thirteen Colonies during the 17th and early 18th centuries and was popularly known as lion (or lyon) dollar - and is in fact the origin of the name Dollar. The modern American-English pronunciation of dollar is still remarkably close to the 17th century Dutch pronunciation of daler. Some well-worn examples circulating in the Colonies were known as "dog dollars".
By analogy with this lion dollar, Spanish pesos - having the same weight and shape - came to be known as Spanish dollars. By the mid-18th century, the lion dollar had been replaced by Spanish dollar, the famous "piece of eight", which were distributed widely in the Spanish colonies in the New World and in the Philippines.