The word “dollar” has a pretty cool origin story. It revolves around an area where the Czech Republic now stands, around a town called Jáchymov. This is a modern iteration of the name, but 500 years ago, give or take, silver was mined in the valley dominating this region. The original name was simply “the valley”, or thal in German, but once silver kept flowing from the mines, it seemed appropriate to name it after a saint.
The confusing thing about the name is that the U.S. isn't the only country calling its currency "the dollar"- in Canada, where I live, and in Australia, the name is also used. This may erroneously make it appear that they are all worth the same amount, when they are not. A Canadian dollar is rarely at equal value to the American one.
There are drawbacks with the electronic system that have only become apparent recently- people robbing banks and other money holders of funds via computer rather than the traditional stereotypical holdup session, for example. Whereas, for many of us, the tangential security of holding a coin or a bill in your hand is one of the best feelings you can have.
I was in Canada last week and struggled with this. On the other hand I needed to get cash at some point and I loved the green $20's I think - with see through plastic bits and holograms. Very cool moolah!!
The biggest differences are that Canada has bills in more than one color, and our coins always have the current British monarch on the back (so when Queen Elizabeth died and King Charles took over, the coins needed facelifts).
Yes I really liked it when we got change, I think the 10'a were a super cool blurple? Or maybe it was the 5's. I kind of wanted to save some but I've got piles of foreign bills that I won't use so instead we played the game of how can we spend all the cash money before we cross the border which was also fun
Yes! It's really fun. On the same vein something legacy that made me kinda sad is no more passport stamps. When you cross the border they just scan it in a thimajig :(
I haven't had to use cash in years. You can pay with credit card pretty much anywhere in Denmark. I have my credit card tied to my Fitbit watch and use it for about 80% of day-to-day transactions.
The only time I've been forced to take out cash was during trips to Germany, where quite a few places still don't accept credit cards.
Also, you just know there was a guy called Joachim during those early days who'd constantly pull the "I'm Joachim, so those are MY thalers!" joke wherever he went.
Indeed! But my favorite "we live in the future" convenience is our local supermarket chain, Rema. It has a concept called "Scan Selv" ("Scan Yourself," in the archaic and incomprehensible Danish language).
Basically, you get their app, and use your phone's camera to scan the barcode of every item you put in your bag. You just walk around the shop and pack things into your backpack/bag/etc. instead of an intermediate shopping basket. Then you pay directly on the app, get a QR code on your screen, and scan it at the checkout, which lets you out. It's so rewarding to just sail right out of the store with your bags already prepacked while long lines of people are still waiting to get to the human cashier.
And it has a companion app where you can create a shopping list, then have it show up on the other app, and as you scan the physical items in the store, they get crossed out from your shopping list. It works beautifully.
This is like halfway to where Bezos wanted to go with his grocery stores. Amazon had to drop their plan because (IMO) it was way too ambitious, but I think a lot of customers in the US would appreciate this.
I believe the Amazon concept was based on RFID chips which would automate the experience even further. Essentially, you wouldn't even need the app, you'd just walk out of the store and the RFID scanner would correctly identify the items you had left with and just charge you automatically. But as I understood it, there are some privacy issues (can RFID stuff be tracked after you leave the store) and also the logistics and costs of attaching RFID chips to every item, no matter the price.
I believe they began without any RFID tags, which was sort of like a venture into self-driving car territory, in the sense that they used only optical scanners (cameras and AI) to identify the objects. I heard it became like Mechanical Turk, wherein they ended up having a bunch of humans do the monitoring, which made the venture cost-prohibitive.
😆 omg it's so good. btw wouldn't it be nice if substack had a reaction besides love? It just doesn't feel right reacting with a heart to something genuinely funny
This is amazing. Bout to talk to my (other) danish buddy and will fact check you. Yknow the thing that surprised me in Denmark? Danish. I had no idea their origin story was ... Danes
Are we referring to Danish pastries? The craziest part is that Danes called them "Wienerbrød," which literally translated means "Vienna bread." Looks like nobody wants to accept responsibility for sugar-induced diabetes.
lol all I know is I went over to my friends parents house and they laid out a try of pastries and told me Danes invented them and they scared me (to me at least Danish *sounds* really scary) so I just nodded and stuffed my gob
Well, technically, Austrian immigrants in Denmark "invented" them, which is why they're called "Wienerbrød," but I only learned that RIGHT NOW as I was fact checking my own claim about Wienerbrød.
As for the way Danish sounds, it's easily the second-worst-sounding language in Europe after Dutch.
I live in Germany as an American an the words Joachimsthaler and Taler comes up once in a while (The German version of Donald Duck uses Taler – Uncle Scrooge bathes in them) but I never saw the connection - thanks, very interesting, also your brief history of money!
Thanks, ET! The way Germans speak English is really interesting, too. You can sort of hear how Queen Elizabeth (and King Charles) can trace their linguistic lineage back across the pond: they sound a bit like newscasters on DW!
I must admit this was fun to read. That would be the post and the comments.
I might have cash but I might not... hehehe you'll never know. *Winks and grins*
The thing is, if people stop using cash all together, there is a likelihood that some will forget how to use it. Cards are great and having the options we do today is great. It actually gives some the option to live more but others should be thought of too. Some will no doubt eventually be born into this world where there is little if no need for cash because card are what is used most. How will people live if all of that technology stops those cards from working correctly? How will they buy food with their cards or things to wear, etc.? How will they survive? This should be thought of and it isn't as much. It is up to the parents to teach the kids when they are of age to use cash because nobody stays a kid forever. Not to know how to use cash, write checks, etc. unknowingly people will be creating the option for robbers to steal identities through technical issues. At least knowing how to use cash, count it etc. knowing how to write a check, etc. can at least give people the option of going into a bank and asking for the help that is needed. What will people do if all the technology in the world simply stops? How will they know how to survive? If you don't know how...you make it easier for hackers, robbers, etc. to pretty much steal from you. Same goes for writing letters. If you don't know how, etc. and you're hacked, you pretty much make it impossible to contact others. That will make the leaders of the world look bad because they will not get to know information that they may actually need. All while harming those who are not leaders and often making them give up due to feeling alone. In my opinion technology is great but it can be taken way to far and that fact shouldn't be ignored. It's not a small thing, it's just easier to assume that it is. Which is perfect for those who wish to take advantage. Coins now...Coins are beautiful and talk about the perfect item to collect. This was so interesting because you have taught me alot! Thanks! Anyway, great post. Thanks again for sharing it.
“Only money that goes out of date like a newspaper rots like potatoes, rusts like iron, evaporates like ether,” Gesell wrote in his seminal work, “The Natural Economic Order,” published in 1915, “is capable of standing the test as an instrument for the exchange of potatoes, newspapers, iron and ether.”
In 1935, he wrote an essay, “What is Money For?” in which he promoted Gesell’s expiring money with ardent emphasis. “The AIM of a sane and decent economic system,” Pound wrote, “is to fix things so that decent people can eat, have clothes and houses up to the limit of available goods.”
Pound called Gesell’s idea “vegetable money” and argued it was a necessary equalizing force so that one person doesn’t have money wealth that accumulates in a bank while others have potato wealth that rots in their root cellar. In Pound’s view, the wealth of a nation ought to not be measured in its amount of money but by the flourishing of its creative and productive arts. “When the total nation hasn’t or cannot obtain enough food for its people, that nation is poor,” he wrote. “When enough food exists and people cannot get it by honest labor, the state is rotten.”
Is it implementable? I do not think so, as it will create a different economic order. However, I am not an economist, and a few entities have tried this concept with limited success.
I didn't track the connection between Joachimsthalers and Spanish Dollar. Is it because Thaler sounds like Dollar?
Yes, exactly. "Joachimsthalers" is a helluva mouthful, so folks gradually dropped the first part and just started using "thaler."
Thaler = dollar with linguistic drift.
The modern German spelling is Tal, but we still see the older spelling in words like Neanderthal, where the “h” is silent.
The confusing thing about the name is that the U.S. isn't the only country calling its currency "the dollar"- in Canada, where I live, and in Australia, the name is also used. This may erroneously make it appear that they are all worth the same amount, when they are not. A Canadian dollar is rarely at equal value to the American one.
There are drawbacks with the electronic system that have only become apparent recently- people robbing banks and other money holders of funds via computer rather than the traditional stereotypical holdup session, for example. Whereas, for many of us, the tangential security of holding a coin or a bill in your hand is one of the best feelings you can have.
I was in Canada last week and struggled with this. On the other hand I needed to get cash at some point and I loved the green $20's I think - with see through plastic bits and holograms. Very cool moolah!!
The biggest differences are that Canada has bills in more than one color, and our coins always have the current British monarch on the back (so when Queen Elizabeth died and King Charles took over, the coins needed facelifts).
Yes I really liked it when we got change, I think the 10'a were a super cool blurple? Or maybe it was the 5's. I kind of wanted to save some but I've got piles of foreign bills that I won't use so instead we played the game of how can we spend all the cash money before we cross the border which was also fun
Have you (or Andrew) ever collected currency? I still have some coins and a few bills.
Yes! It's really fun. On the same vein something legacy that made me kinda sad is no more passport stamps. When you cross the border they just scan it in a thimajig :(
I haven't had to use cash in years. You can pay with credit card pretty much anywhere in Denmark. I have my credit card tied to my Fitbit watch and use it for about 80% of day-to-day transactions.
The only time I've been forced to take out cash was during trips to Germany, where quite a few places still don't accept credit cards.
Also, you just know there was a guy called Joachim during those early days who'd constantly pull the "I'm Joachim, so those are MY thalers!" joke wherever he went.
I sincerely hope Joachim is some kind of dad now.
No, but he is certainly some kind of "dead" now.
That seems less appropriate, but hey, jokes come from everywhere.
Unless Joachim is a 500-year-old vampire, I'd say mine is a pretty accurate assessment of his current condition.
Don't you feel kind of like a Merlin magician when u pay with a thingie strapped to your wrist? Huzzah!!
It really does feel like we're doing magic.
Indeed! But my favorite "we live in the future" convenience is our local supermarket chain, Rema. It has a concept called "Scan Selv" ("Scan Yourself," in the archaic and incomprehensible Danish language).
Basically, you get their app, and use your phone's camera to scan the barcode of every item you put in your bag. You just walk around the shop and pack things into your backpack/bag/etc. instead of an intermediate shopping basket. Then you pay directly on the app, get a QR code on your screen, and scan it at the checkout, which lets you out. It's so rewarding to just sail right out of the store with your bags already prepacked while long lines of people are still waiting to get to the human cashier.
And it has a companion app where you can create a shopping list, then have it show up on the other app, and as you scan the physical items in the store, they get crossed out from your shopping list. It works beautifully.
Modern magic at its finest.
This is like halfway to where Bezos wanted to go with his grocery stores. Amazon had to drop their plan because (IMO) it was way too ambitious, but I think a lot of customers in the US would appreciate this.
I believe the Amazon concept was based on RFID chips which would automate the experience even further. Essentially, you wouldn't even need the app, you'd just walk out of the store and the RFID scanner would correctly identify the items you had left with and just charge you automatically. But as I understood it, there are some privacy issues (can RFID stuff be tracked after you leave the store) and also the logistics and costs of attaching RFID chips to every item, no matter the price.
I believe they began without any RFID tags, which was sort of like a venture into self-driving car territory, in the sense that they used only optical scanners (cameras and AI) to identify the objects. I heard it became like Mechanical Turk, wherein they ended up having a bunch of humans do the monitoring, which made the venture cost-prohibitive.
Oooooff, that sounds decidedly less like the future.
😆 omg it's so good. btw wouldn't it be nice if substack had a reaction besides love? It just doesn't feel right reacting with a heart to something genuinely funny
It's even more confusing that they accompany the emoji by the "Liked" caption. So inconsistent!
This is amazing. Bout to talk to my (other) danish buddy and will fact check you. Yknow the thing that surprised me in Denmark? Danish. I had no idea their origin story was ... Danes
Are we referring to Danish pastries? The craziest part is that Danes called them "Wienerbrød," which literally translated means "Vienna bread." Looks like nobody wants to accept responsibility for sugar-induced diabetes.
lol all I know is I went over to my friends parents house and they laid out a try of pastries and told me Danes invented them and they scared me (to me at least Danish *sounds* really scary) so I just nodded and stuffed my gob
Well, technically, Austrian immigrants in Denmark "invented" them, which is why they're called "Wienerbrød," but I only learned that RIGHT NOW as I was fact checking my own claim about Wienerbrød.
As for the way Danish sounds, it's easily the second-worst-sounding language in Europe after Dutch.
I live in Germany as an American an the words Joachimsthaler and Taler comes up once in a while (The German version of Donald Duck uses Taler – Uncle Scrooge bathes in them) but I never saw the connection - thanks, very interesting, also your brief history of money!
Thanks, ET! The way Germans speak English is really interesting, too. You can sort of hear how Queen Elizabeth (and King Charles) can trace their linguistic lineage back across the pond: they sound a bit like newscasters on DW!
haha!
I must admit this was fun to read. That would be the post and the comments.
I might have cash but I might not... hehehe you'll never know. *Winks and grins*
The thing is, if people stop using cash all together, there is a likelihood that some will forget how to use it. Cards are great and having the options we do today is great. It actually gives some the option to live more but others should be thought of too. Some will no doubt eventually be born into this world where there is little if no need for cash because card are what is used most. How will people live if all of that technology stops those cards from working correctly? How will they buy food with their cards or things to wear, etc.? How will they survive? This should be thought of and it isn't as much. It is up to the parents to teach the kids when they are of age to use cash because nobody stays a kid forever. Not to know how to use cash, write checks, etc. unknowingly people will be creating the option for robbers to steal identities through technical issues. At least knowing how to use cash, count it etc. knowing how to write a check, etc. can at least give people the option of going into a bank and asking for the help that is needed. What will people do if all the technology in the world simply stops? How will they know how to survive? If you don't know how...you make it easier for hackers, robbers, etc. to pretty much steal from you. Same goes for writing letters. If you don't know how, etc. and you're hacked, you pretty much make it impossible to contact others. That will make the leaders of the world look bad because they will not get to know information that they may actually need. All while harming those who are not leaders and often making them give up due to feeling alone. In my opinion technology is great but it can be taken way to far and that fact shouldn't be ignored. It's not a small thing, it's just easier to assume that it is. Which is perfect for those who wish to take advantage. Coins now...Coins are beautiful and talk about the perfect item to collect. This was so interesting because you have taught me alot! Thanks! Anyway, great post. Thanks again for sharing it.
Have you read the below article? It talks about the concept of expiring money.
https://www.noemamag.com/what-if-money-expired/
“Only money that goes out of date like a newspaper rots like potatoes, rusts like iron, evaporates like ether,” Gesell wrote in his seminal work, “The Natural Economic Order,” published in 1915, “is capable of standing the test as an instrument for the exchange of potatoes, newspapers, iron and ether.”
In 1935, he wrote an essay, “What is Money For?” in which he promoted Gesell’s expiring money with ardent emphasis. “The AIM of a sane and decent economic system,” Pound wrote, “is to fix things so that decent people can eat, have clothes and houses up to the limit of available goods.”
Pound called Gesell’s idea “vegetable money” and argued it was a necessary equalizing force so that one person doesn’t have money wealth that accumulates in a bank while others have potato wealth that rots in their root cellar. In Pound’s view, the wealth of a nation ought to not be measured in its amount of money but by the flourishing of its creative and productive arts. “When the total nation hasn’t or cannot obtain enough food for its people, that nation is poor,” he wrote. “When enough food exists and people cannot get it by honest labor, the state is rotten.”
Is it implementable? I do not think so, as it will create a different economic order. However, I am not an economist, and a few entities have tried this concept with limited success.
I'd examine the reasons why those attempts failed, but like you I am very skeptical that this could work at any meaningful scale.
Holup - so Dollar == Joachimsthalers? I liked it better when salary == salt
Yeah, but 'thalers sounds kinda cool! Some hipster just dropped the first part of the word and made it "cool" to say.