By the early 17th century, the word dollar shows up in Shakespeare twice.

This wasn't just for merchants.

So as commerce spreads to the American colonies,

the dollar also becomes a standard accepted unit of value and coin in the United States as well,

or rather in the colonies.

But then they choose, for their currency currency a Spanish coin made from Mexican silver

with a German name.

Well, that shows the joys of multiculturalism and immigrants. They get the job done.

It's an immigrant coin. It's not the story of sovereignty.

So when is someone going to tell the American government that they're using an immigrant coin?

Yeah. So when is someone going to tell the American government that they're using an immigrant coin? Today on the story of money, the origins of the dollar.

That's a topic, which is super timely today

because I've been seeing central bank governors and finance ministers recently

and what many of them are wondering is

can the dominance of the dollar remain in place?

And is there anything which could possibly topple it?

And of course to answer those questions about why the dollar is so dominant,

it actually pays to look not just to the future, but also to the past,

and to understand exactly how and where the dollar came from in the first place,

because people don't often ask that question, do they, Robin? No, that's right.

It may surprise some people to learn that the door itself is actually a lot older than the

United States of America. But the original inventor has been almost completely written out of the

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