Today in History: The U.S. Dollar

On this day (July 6) in 1785 the U.S. established the dollar as the monetary unit of the country. If they hadn't, we Americans might be doing our calculations in pounds, shillings and pence. The dollar was actually based on Spanish currency, of which much was in circulation in the young United States. The Spanish currency was based on eight reales (the famous pieces of eight) but the U.S. currency was based on the decimal system starting with the penny.