The E-Sylum:  Volume 10, Number 14, April 8, 2007, Article 17

QUERY: SO WHY IS A DOLLAR CALLED A BUCK?

Julian Leidman writes: "I had an inquiry from the consumer unit of a 
local TV station and couldn't think of an answer. Can anyone give me 
any assistance? Why is the dollar called a buck?" 

[Well, we here at The E-Sylum are supposed to know everything numismatic, 
so I hope to hear some definitive answers from our readers. But a web 
search did turn up one explanation that I'll use here as a starting 
point. This very query came up as a request on Yahoo Answers, and 
here's the result. -Editor]

"The Indians taught the European settlers the value of a buck. In the 
eighteenth century, that meant a deerskin, used for trading in its own 
right and as a unit of value for trading anything else. So in 1748, 
while in Indian territory on a visit to the Ohio, Conrad Weiser wrote 
in his journal, "He has been robbed of the value of 300 Bucks"; and 
later, "Every cask of Whiskey shall be sold...for 5 Bucks in your town."

"In the next century, with deerskins less often serving as a medium 
of exchange, the buck passed to the dollar. A Sacramento, California, 
newspaper reported this court judgment in 1856: "Bernard, assault and 
battery upon Wm. Croft, in the sum of twenty bucks."

To view the complete Yahoo answer, see: Full Story

  Wayne Homren, Editor

	coinbooks.org Web

The Numismatic Bibliomania Society is a non-profit organization 
promoting numismatic literature. See our web site at coinbooks.org.

To submit items for publication in The E-Sylum, write to the Editor 
at this address: whomren@coinlibrary.com

To subscribe go to: https://my.binhost.com/lists/listinfo/esylum