{"id":123625,"date":"2016-05-14T15:00:18","date_gmt":"2016-05-14T13:00:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=123625"},"modified":"2016-05-13T17:08:50","modified_gmt":"2016-05-13T15:08:50","slug":"where-the-worlds-currencies-get-their-names-from","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/trending\/123625\/where-the-worlds-currencies-get-their-names-from\/","title":{"rendered":"Where the world’s currencies get their names from"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Oxford Dictionary<\/a><\/strong> has posted an insightful piece on the where currencies from around the world got their names from- including the South African rand.<\/p>\n

The rand was named after the Witwatersrand – the are around Johannesburg known for its gold deposits.<\/p>\n

It was first introduced in 1961, when South Africa gained its independence as a republic, moving away from the\u00a0the denominations of pounds, shillings and pence.<\/p>\n

The rand is one of the few currencies that are named after location rather than being a literal derivative of their composition,\u00a0weight or lineage – but it is still tied to gold, which is the origin of a number of currencies.<\/p>\n

Here are how currencies around the world got their names:<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>

The first dollar coin<\/p><\/div>\n

Silver<\/h3>\n

The origin of the dollar<\/i>, also the Slovenian tolar<\/i>, is from a coin called the Joachimsthaler<\/i>, shortened to Thaler (or daler<\/i>in early Flemish or Low German), named after the valley in which the silver it was made from was mined, the Joachimsthal, literally \u2018Joachim\u2019s valley\u2019.<\/p>\n

According to the Oxford Dictionary, this was later applied in American colonies as well, before being adopted as the official name of the US money<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Dollar is also used by Australia<\/strong>, Canada<\/strong>, Fiji<\/strong>, New Zealand<\/strong> and Singapore<\/strong>, among others.<\/p>\n

Countries such as Jordan<\/strong>, Algeria<\/strong>, Serbia<\/strong> and Kuwait<\/strong> use the dinar<\/em>, which comes from the Latin denarius<\/em> – an ancient Roman silver coin.<\/p>\n

India<\/strong> and Pakistan<\/strong> use the rupee<\/em>, which is from the Sanskrit rupya<\/em>, which means ‘wrought silver’ – also the origin of the Indonesian<\/strong> rupiah<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Gold<\/h3>\n

Along with the South African<\/strong> rand<\/em>, Poland<\/strong>‘s zloty and Hungary<\/strong>‘s forint both have ties to gold. Zloty<\/em> means “golden” in Polish, while the forint<\/em> is based on the Italian fiorino<\/em>, originally a golden coin from Florence, Italy.<\/p>\n

\"Gold<\/a>

Gold Kurgerrand<\/p><\/div>\n

Shape and texture<\/h3>\n

When coins were made of precious metals, serrated edges were introduced to stop people from scraping value off of the coins. The Malaysian<\/strong> ringgit<\/em> is from Malay from “jagged”, and refers to the texture of the Spanish coins used before the ringgit was introduced.<\/p>\n

The Chinese<\/strong> yuan<\/em>, Japanese<\/strong> yen<\/em> and Korean<\/strong> won<\/em> all originate from the Chinese character that means “round” or “round coin”.<\/p>\n

Royal Crown<\/h3>\n

Swedish<\/strong> krona<\/em>, Norwegian<\/strong> krone<\/em>, Danish<\/strong> krone<\/em>, Icelandic<\/strong> krona<\/em>, Estonian<\/strong> kroon<\/em> and Czech<\/strong> koruna<\/em> all derive from the Latin corona, meaning crown.<\/p>\n

Other regions which hail to royal origins are the Spanish<\/strong> and Brazilian<\/strong> real<\/em>, which derives from the latin regalis<\/em>, meaning royal<\/em>. Oman<\/strong> and Iran<\/strong> with the rial<\/em> and Qatar<\/strong>, Saudi Arabia<\/strong> and Yemen<\/strong> with the riyal<\/em>, share the same origin.<\/p>\n

\"British<\/a>

British pound coin<\/p><\/div>\n

Weight<\/h3>\n

Many countries use and used measurements of weight for their money:<\/p>\n

Germany<\/strong> and Finland<\/strong> with the mark<\/em> and markka<\/em> – which were units of measurement. Both countries now use the euro.<\/p>\n

Spain<\/strong>, Mexico<\/strong>, Argentina<\/strong>, Philippines<\/strong>, Chile<\/strong>, Uruguay<\/strong>, Cuba <\/strong>and Colombia<\/strong> have\u00a0the peso<\/em> – which means ‘weight’ in Spanish.<\/p>\n

Russia<\/strong>‘s ruble was originally a measure of the weight of silver – while the British<\/strong> pound comes from the Latin pondus<\/em>, meaning weight<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The Italian<\/strong> and Turkish<\/strong> lira<\/em> also hail from weight, from the Latin libra<\/em>, meaning pound<\/em>.<\/p>\n

More on currency<\/h3>\n

Quiz: can you identify these currencies?<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

The most beautiful banknotes in the world<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Oxford Dictionary has posted an insightful piece on the where currencies from around the world got their names from- including the South African rand.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":114834,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[26,10008],"class_list":["post-123625","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-trending","tag-headline","tag-oxford"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123625","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=123625"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123625\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":123629,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123625\/revisions\/123629"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/114834"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=123625"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=123625"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=123625"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}