Even our words for units of money, such as the dollar, originally date from measurements of previous metal content: the word“dollar” comes from “thaler,” which was derived from“Joachimsthaler,” a type of coin from the town of Joachimsthal in the Kingdom of Bohemia that enjoyed particularly rich silver mine; the coin became a popular form of money because the coins had a certain weight of pure silver in every coin, and managed to preserve that silver content for long enough for the coin to earn a solid reputation in the marketplace. Source: Link