meaning of currencies - help me compile a Numisdoc

Inspired by the Malawian Tambala (https://en.numista.com/forum/topic34123.html) I'd like to put a comprehensive guide to what certain currency names mean and how they are related to each other.

For example:
The mark was a currency or unit of account in many nations. It is named for the mark unit of weight. The word mark comes from a merging of three Teutonic/Germanic words, Latinized in ninth century post-classical Latin as marca, marcha, marha or marcus. It was a measure of weight mainly for gold and silver, commonly used throughout western Europe and often equivalent to eight ounces.

List of currencies named "mark" or similar

"Mark" can refer
to one of the following historical German currencies:
        1619–1873: the mark banco of Hamburg;
        1873–1914: the German gold mark, the currency of the German Empire;
        1914–1923: the German Papiermark;
        1923–1948: the German Rentenmark;
        1924–1948: the German Reichsmark;
        1944–1948: the military mark of the Allied occupying forces;
        1947: the Saar mark;
        1948–1990: the East German mark;
        1948–2002: the German mark, also called Deutsche Mark or D-Mark, and abbreviated DM;
or to one of the other following historical currencies:
        the merk Scots, an early-modern Scottish silver coin;
        1860–2002: the Finnish markka;
        1884–1911: the New Guinean mark;
        1884–1915: the German South-West African mark;
        1916–1918: the South West African mark;
        1917–1924: the Polish marka;
        1918–1927: the Estonian mark;
or, since 1998, to the Bosnia and Herzegovina convertible mark.

NOW, these are simply copies from wikipedia, but tell me what your currency means and how it is related to other currencies!

So let me start with something less obvious than the MARK:

HUNGARY
The Forint: the name comes from the city of Florence, where golden coins were minted from 1252 called fiorino d'oro. In Hungary, florentinus (later forint), also a gold-based currency, was used from 1325 under Charles Robert.
The Fillér: The fillér was the name of various small change coins throughout Hungarian history. It was the 1⁄100 subdivision of the Austro-Hungarian and the Hungarian korona, the pengő and the forint. The name derives from the German word Vierer that means 'number four' in English. Originally it was the name of the four-Kreuzer coin.
The Pengő: The Hungarian participle pengő means 'ringing' (which in turn derives from the verb peng, an onomatopoeic word equivalent to English 'ring') and was used from the 15-17th century to refer to silver coins making a ringing sound when struck on a hard surface, thus indicating their precious metal content.

MALAWI
The Kwacha: The name derives from the Nyanja and Bemba word for "dawn"
The Tambala: means "young rooster" in Nyanja. The tambala was so named because a rooster appeared on the first one tambala coin.


SO, I need you help: what your currency names mean and how they are related to each other?

What is the linguistic background of YOUR currency or the one you like and know????



P.S: If you know a source where all this is already collected, please, highlight my incompetence and lead me to that site or book!

I love the idea Imre. I hope you have lots of input.

Here is my beta version of registry:



Waiting for your inputs! - Ben you can do yours, as a proper Moscovian!

I believe "Gulden" (former currency of my country) was derived from the word "gouden", which means golden in Dutch (and that word was derived from the "Carolusgulden", a gold coin which circulated during the 1500's).

Hope this help you any. :-)

http://www.collectionstudio.com/en/help/article01.htm

The Indian "Rupee" term comes from the ancient Sanskrit word of "Roupya" which means silver. In ancient times  silver was the method of calculating value of the currency. So all denominations of coins were dependent on the amount of silver in the coin (Or equivalent amount of copper in it).

I remember reading that a Shekel was a biblical weight.
So pre-coinage, something was worth X Shekels of silver for example.

Citação: Lotus07I believe "Gulden" (former currency of my country) was derived from the word "gouden", which means golden in Dutch (and that word was derived from the "Carolusgulden", a gold coin which circulated during the 1500's).

Hope this help you any. :-)

Gulden coins existed in the German states already from 1386

The South African Rand is named after the Witwatersrand, the area where Johannesburg and most of South Africa's gold mines are located.  The area is usually referred to as the Rand.

Here is a wikipedia page about Russian Kopek. It is in Russian and there seems to be no translation to English. I've translated the first paragraph though:

CitaçãoA common interpretation of the name indicates its origin from the word "spear": originally depicted on the obverse as George The Victorious spearing a serpent. It is also possible that the origin is a small coins issued during the reign of Ivan the Terrible, with a picture of a rider with a spear. There is a theory that it comes from the Tatar expression "Dinar Kopec".

CROATIA:

Kuna: Kuna in Croatian literally means marten. It is because martens' fur was used as a money long time ago.

Lipa: Lipa in Croatian literally means linden. Cause of name Kuna comes from animal world, 1/100 Kuna should come from flora. (Actually, if you look closely to the Croatian coins, you'll see that on all Lipa coins are flora and on all Kuna coins are fauna.) Linden was very popular in Croatian historic, folklore and literary tradition.

Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Iceland use Krona (as you know), which means Crown. The currency got the name when the Scandinavian currency union was formed in the 19:th century. The union was abolished in 1914 with the outbreak of world war 1, but the name persists in all four countries.

I'm not sure why this name was chosen, but a guess is it's related to the monarch in some way.

The subdivision öre comes, according to wikipedia, from the Roman/Latin word aureus which means gold and also was the name of a coin in the Roman empire. Compare Latin aureus --> Icelandig auyrar --> Swedish ören (definite form plural). Of the north Germanic languages, Icelandic is said to be closest to the originating language.
Öre was a subdivision also with older Swedish currencies as Mark and Daler, so is an old word. Daler comes from the word dal which means valley (in German Tal --> Thaler), because the silver was mined in valleys around Joachimstahl, now known as Jáchymov in Czech republic.

Romania (according to Wikipedia again) - Leu (plural Lei) means Lion. The reason the currency got the name is that during the 17:th century the dutch taler (Löwenthaler - Lion taler) was the currency used in the area. These coins had a lion on them. The name Lion then stuck as a generic term for money, and was then used for Romania's own currency after independence.
The subdivision, Ban, simply means money (I don't have money - Nu am ban)

So that was 5 countries in one go!

Franc : Freedom of movement and action, as opposed to the status of slave or serf. Such was also the origin of the name of the currency whose creation was linked to the recovery of the freedom of the King of France, Jean II le bon, back from Perfidious Albion.

Japan, China, and Korea use a variation of 圓 which are similar phonetically: en, yuan (pronounced yuen), and won, all of which mean round. Few silver coins in these countries were round, and the influctuated Spanish silver dollars were given this name. In 1871 Japan issued the first 圓 coins, Korea in 1902 (using official taels first, after transitioning from cast coinage), and China in the late 1880's due to strong Western trade influence. All currencies use phonetically similar subunits: 銭 as sen, qian, and jeon for silver units (tien in Vietnamese), 分 as fun (pronounced foon), fen, and bun for copper units. The uses of these different denominations varied over time, and all three countries use a variation of 圓.

Russian Rubl' comes from the verb rubít', meaning to chop. They were originally chunks chopped off from a larger unit: a bar of silver named Grivna, which derives from Griva meaning manes (of a horse). As with the Croatian Kuna, Grivna is also referring to furs as a common units of exchange among the early Slavs.

Grivna is now the name of the Ukrainian currency, Hryvnja.

It looks to me that the words for silver in Sanskrit and Finnish are related: Roupya & Hopea. The first Markka coins struck in the 2nd half of the 19th century mention the silver content and the word 'HOPEATA' appears on it, which is the partitive inflexion of 'hopea'.

Another one:
Zloty comes from Slavic 'Zolota' which means gold. Effectively it's the same name as Gulden, which was used in Austria, Germany and of course until recently the Netherlands.

The Gulden was also called Florin (e.g. Aruban Florin), which has its origin to aforementioned Florence.

Citação: jokinenThe Gulden was also called Florin (e.g. Aruban Florin), which has its origin to aforementioned Florence.

Which explains the currency symbol for the Dutch Gulden: f or fl.

For completeness you could add the fractional unit also, Mark - Pfennig, Pound - Penny, Dollar - Cent, etc.

We've just got boring old dollars and cents, cent is pretty obvious, it means 100, indicating there are 100 of them in a dollar.  Dollar I believe originated from the German Thaler

The name dime stems from the French décime, which means 1/10th. In France the décime soon disappeared and was called 10 centimes thereafter, but in the Americas the dime or decimo was a common denomination.

Peseta means 'small peso'. When the Spanish joined the Latin Monetary Union they replaced the Peso (roughly worth a Dollar or 5 Francs) with the Peseta which was at par with the French Franc.

The names Escudo and Scudo come from the word 'shield'. Similarly, the shilling or schilling is based on the same.

Lira stems from Latin Libra which means weighing balance. This also explains the £ sign.

Dinar comes from Latin Denarius, but no idea what it means.

Drachma is cognate with Dram, Dirham and Diram.

Lek, Lev and Leu are all based on the Löwenthaler.

Wouldn't be surprised if the names Ruble and Rupee are related.

VENEZUELA

Bolivar, it was the last name of the liberator Simon Bolivar... there was different local names given to the decimal coins such as:
5 Centimos were called "Pulla - Puya" I dont know the meaning
25 Centimos were called "Medio", this doesnt make sense as medio should be half like 50 centimos...
50 Centimos were called "Real", probably related to previous currency values
5 Bolivares were called "Fuerte" probably because it was the biggest and heaviest of the coins???

Our banknotes were also having nicknames...

100 Bolivares were called "Marron"
500 Bolivares were called "Orquidia" there was an Orchid flower on the bill
At one point there were issued 1 and 2 Bolivares and no one like them or use them... they were really annoying  and smaller than the rest of the notes..at that moment the president of the central bank was  Pedro Tinoco and those notes were called tinoquitos

ECUADOR

Sucre was related to Jose Antonio de Sucre, another of the guys who fight and liberate south american countries from spain...

If you check the 5 centimos from Ecuador they look alike with the 5 cents from venezuela

BOLIVIA

Boliviano same as Venezuela...

Before the Bolivar (which was at par with the Latin Monetary Union French Franc) there was the Peso which was worth 8 Real. A peso was roughly 5 Bolivares. Hence a Real was 62.5 centimos which is in the neighbourhood of 50. Maybe that's the names Real for 50c and medio for 25c were that way.

Btw, are there new coins planned in Venezuela with all the inflation that's happening there?

Citação: jokinenBefore the Bolivar (which was at par with the Latin Monetary Union French Franc) there was the Peso which was worth 8 Real. A peso was roughly 5 Bolivares. Hence a Real was 62.5 centimos which is in the neighbourhood of 50. Maybe that's the names Real for 50c and medio for 25c were that way.

Btw, are there new coins planned in Venezuela with all the inflation that's happening there?

As you say with all the economy problems I can see that happening but I dont think it will happen in the next two years... remember that they swap from "Bolivar" to "Bolivar Fuerte" temporarily. I guess at one point the currency name will go back to Bolivar.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venezuelan_bol%C3%ADvar

This link has more detailed info.

One thing is for sure the actual 1 , 5, 10 and 12.5cents are gonna be out as their use is stupid....

Last time I went to Venezuela I heard rumors about a new banknote of 500 and probably 1000 Bolivares Fuertes, again our currency is not in line with the reality... I saw many people with packs of 100 Bolivares to pay a meal that could be around 4000 - 8000 (U will need 40 to 80 banknotes) just to pay a meal for 3-4 persons.

Citação: jokinen(...)
Dinar comes from Latin Denarius, but no idea what it means.
(...)

Denarius refers to its value of 10 As (the former cast copper coinage of the early Roman republic).
The Denarius was introduced as trade coinage, since the large copper coins were not suitable for paying large sums. In the late Roman republic, the copper As was shrunk and devalued to 16 As for a denarius.

Denarius also lives on in the spanish 'dinero' and in the abbreviation 'd' for a pre-decimal penny in the UK.

Georgia:
LARI   ( ლ ა რ ი )  is archaic  Georgian word and    means " treasure" .  Lari  was never used as name of  currency. It was   declared  as  Georgian main currency  in  1995, but the term was  proposed by Georgian National  Academy  in 1991.

TETRI  ( თ ე თ რ ი ) means  " white"  . History of tetri  lost in ancient  Georgia, where romans and Greeks were  frequent guests  there.     silver coins  of that periods   ( tetradrakhms and so on with bull  or lion head)  were called  " KOLKHURI TETRI" or Kolkhi Whites.


   

PANAMA

Balboa is also related to a person, in this case a conqueror...

Similar to Costa Rica, Colon "Christopher Colombus"

any ideas about   NGULTRUM and CHETRUM ?   

looks like they have  same origin ( RUM)

Wow, that’s a challenging one.
I’ve found it very difficult to find any information, not being Bhutanese, the language is a little tricky to say the least!
By my (sometimes flawed) logic, I think Ngultum means silver coin, and Chetrum means partial coin.

This is how I got there, feel free to question my logic!  

100 Chhertums (Chetrums) = 1 Ngultrum
The language of Bhutan is Dzongkha.
The Dzongkha for Ngultrum is དངུལ་ཀྲམ
The Ngultrum is pegged with the Indian Rupee.
The word Rupee comes from from Hindi rupaīyā, from Sanskrit rūpya coined silver, from rūpa shape, beauty.

Searching through a Dzongkha-English dictionary, I’ve found the following:
Copper Coin - ཟངས་ཀྲམ
Copper - ཟངས
Old Coin - རྙིང་ཀྲམ

So I’m guessing the last couple of characters mean coin.

And silver is དངུལ

So I reckon དངུལ་ཀྲམ (Ngultrum) means simply, silver coin.

And now for Chetrum (ཕྱེད་ཀྲམ)

The beginning of the word translates to half/partial. So I think Chetrum means partial-coin.

Citação: Dato Mikeladzeany ideas about   NGULTRUM and CHETRUM ?   

looks like they have  same origin ( RUM)

In sanskrit "ngultrum" represents "royal mercy" or "royal alms, offering".
"chetrum" ? - maybe little "royal mercy" )

thank you , friends ! very interesting !

A small correction from some of the posts above:

peso = A weight - From latin pensum, a form of pendere (to hang). Related to english "pendant".

Dinar (arabic), from greek denarion from latin denarius, short for denarius nummus meaning "the coin containing ten aces". NOT related to greek Drachma which means "a handful".

Dollar is as somebody already wrote coming from low german daler, which comes from taler which is short for Joachimstaler (as mentioned already in relation to swedish coins).

Can recommend this site for more etmyology: http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?allowed_in_frame=0&search=rupee&searchmode=none

Hmm... This site give a different meaning to Peso: http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/peso

Comes from Latin Pensum, which comes from the verb Penso.
Penso means one of these:

1. ponder, consider
2. weigh, counterbalance
3. pay for, purchase

Which one is right then? Does one not do all three when buying something?

THANKS to all of you.

I am not forgetting this topic, but recent scandalous events on Numista drags my attention, so thanks, thanks, keep coming, I will be summarizing them shortly.

Imre

Citação: pileborgPenso means one of these:
1. ponder, consider
2. weigh, counterbalance
3. pay for, purchase
Which one is right then? Does one not do all three when buying something?

I have no doubt that 'weigh' is the original underlying meaning of Spanish (a.o.) peso, peseta. Meaning 1. is figuratively, i.e. derived (http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/pendo#Latin). And meaning 3. can easily be explained as an extension to 2, once weighing has obtained the meaning element of 'validating money'.
In times when money wasn't standardized, paying and exchanging involved a lot of weighing. This is a recurring theme on old paintings and drawings, since classical times.
http://www.wikigallery.org/wiki/painting_364363/Rembrandt-School/An-Old-Woman-Weighing-Gold-Coins

Citação: 7doktorIn sanskrit "ngultrum" represents "royal mercy" or "royal alms, offering".
"chetrum" ? - maybe little "royal mercy" )

LoL, so I was completely wrong!?!?

That's quite funny.  

Hi All

The Currency for Botswana is Pula and Thebe.  Pula is Tswana (The local language) for rain, and Thebe is raindrops.  Very descriptive for a country that mostly consists of desert.  

Lesotho has Loti.  The local mountain range is call the Maloti Mountains.  Called the Drakensberg in South Africa.  From there the currency name.  

Swaziland has Lilangeni.  It is likely that the currency comes from the surname of the great Zulu King - Shaka Zulu's Mother, Langeni.  The Swazi nation and was once part of the Zulu's and Shaka's mother was born in the modern day Swaziland.  Her surname would have come from the local tribe, eLangeni, of which she was a part.  

Hope this helps.

Philip

Perhaps the people of Botswana used water as a currency before?

Citação: bam777Perhaps the people of Botswana used water as a currency before?

hehe,  I guess it more refers to scarcity of the resource, and it is a wonderful example of expressiveness of some langues.

Well Ive been to Botswana and every year around may/june? heav rain transform the desert and savannah in an increadibly green place "The Okawango Delta" full of rivers and lakes forms again year after year, so I can understand the importance of this rain for the people of Botswana.

Citação: imrehbut recent scandalous events on Numista drags my attention,

What have I missed?

As for Botswana, I guess to them water is money.

The Rupee is the common name for the currencies of India, Pakistan, Sri ‎Lanka, Nepal, Mauritius, Seychelles, Maldives, Indonesia (as the rupiah), and ‎formerly those of Burma and Afghanistan. Historically, the first currency called ‎‎"rupiya" was introduced by Sher Shah Suri, founder of the Sur ‎Empire of Northern India during his brief rule between 1540 and 1545. The ‎term is drived from rūpya, a Sanskrit term for silver coin, and from Sanskrit rūpá, meaning, beautiful ‎form. ‎

Bulgarian stotinka and Slovenian stotin derive from the word sto 'hundred' (same in both languages). So literally: 'a hundredth'.

Mongolian Tugrik / Tegreg/ is a semantic calque from  Chinese "Yuan"  and means : completely round, full round, circle.  ( so- coin)
Mungu - mongolian word meant " silver" and then - " coin"

Citação: neilithic

Citação: imrehbut recent scandalous events on Numista drags my attention,

What have I missed?

A revolution that killed the spirit and about 300 posts (not a joke) that are now deleted.

I am not sure what is going on, even the posts about the deleted tokens have been deleted, and soon, who knows, I hope not, the website might be deleted.

         

But on the bright side of things    We still have sunny weather at the beginning of November!!  

Philip

Linger on,

I value your post, and in one way or another it will be incorporated!

imrehLinger on,

I value your post, and in one way or another it will be incorporated!

Here is another one that I can't find in the thread:

Romania: Leu means lion, derived from the lion on the Dutch silver daalder coins that were circulating throughout Europe in the past.
https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roemeense_leu (explained in Dutch)

@imreh: can you please edit your very first post in this thread and update the list with all currencies explained by others?
That makes it a lot easier to find wether one has been mentioned already.

The English wiki page tells the story about the leeuwendaalder as well.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romanian_leu

 

It says in addition that not only the Romanian leu, but also the Bulgarian lev (‘lion’ as well) has its name from it. And the Moldovian leu, but I guess they just followed Romania when they introduced their currency in the 1990-ies and didn't have any recollection of leeuwendaalders any more.

I think the Kreuzer was not mentioned yet, although the name might seem obvious to German speakers. Literally meaning “coin with a cross” (Kreuz in German). It was used across much of the central Europe and had several varieties in other languages of that area, like Czech krejcar or Hungarian krajcár or krajczár.