UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A CNN viewer wants to know, "Why is the United States' money called the dollar, and where did that come from?"</s>JASON ZWEIG, "MONEY": Well, Alpha, the U.S. dollar originates in Bohemia, in Czechoslovakia, in the 16th century. That's where silver was first mined and minted into silver coins, and the place where the silver was mined was called Joachimsthal, and the coins were called talers. In 1792, shortly after the United States became independent, Congress wanted a name for our money and settled on dollars, based on the old taler that came from Eastern Europe.
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