How did the Jáchymov thalers become US dollars? The Czech Mint's 2023 bullion coin minted from five kilograms of pure silver will remind you of this incredible story.

A lightning rod, a propeller, blood groups, genetics, contact lenses, sugar cubes or the word robot - all this is the work of our ingenious compatriots. However, only few of us know that we have also given the world its most famous and respected currency. Which one? The dollar! Somewhere in Texas, no one probably knows that the roots of their famous currency go back to a mountain town in a small country in the heart of Europe. That's why it's worth remembering this forgotten Czech heritage, whose history began five centuries ago... The Jáchymov thaler was a silver coin that originated on the estate of the Šlik dynasty in the Ore Mountains in 1520. The exceptionally high quality coin spread from the Bohemian Kingdom to the whole of Europe and its success prompted the minting of many imitations. We know the distorted taller from Hungary, the talar from Poland, the tàliro from Greece, the tallero from Italy, the dare from Persia, the dalur from Iceland  and the daler from Norway, Sweden, Denmark and the Netherlands. It was Dutch currency that spread around the world thanks to the boom in international trade in the 17th and 18th centuries. Dutch coins were used to pay in the Middle East, Indonesia and the Dutch colony in the New World, which later became New York. It was only a short step to the proverbial dollar - the Dutch pronunciation of the word daler is strikingly similar to the English pronunciation of the word dollar.

The Czech Mint proudly claims the legacy of the Jáchymov mints. In addition to coins with a nominal value in crowns, we also mint dollar coins - New Zealand, Fijian or Samoan. After five hundred years, the dollars have returned to where they came from... While the reverse side of the bullion coin, which is the work of designer Ladislav Vraný and medal maker MgA. Martin Dašek, presents three Jáchymov thalers, on the obverse side you will find a trio of US dollars. Specifically, this is the motif of the very first coins minted by the United States in 1794, which borrowed not only the name but also the weight and purity of the metal used from their Czech ancestor. Since the coins of the Czech Mint are issued with the licence of a foreign issuer, which is the island of Niue, their obverse side still bears its necessary attributes - the national emblem, the nominal value of 400 DOLLARS (NZD) and the year of issue 2023.

Invest in a smart, stylish way and without VAT! In our offer you can also find other variants of the bullion coin "Tolar" (Thaler) made of gold and silver. This allows you to easily regulate how much money you invest in precious metals.

The story of how the Jáchymov thalers became US dollars is not only recalled by a number of bullion coins, but also by a popular educational series produced in cooperation between the Czech Mint and the CNN Prima NEWS channel. You can find it on a special website: www.odtolarukdolaru.cz.