DCHP-1 Online

Spanish dollar † Hist.

• a silver dollar long circulated in Canada and other parts of America during colonial times, being gradually displaced by American and, later, Canadian money.

  See also: dollar  (def. 1)  half-dollar (def. 1)  holey dollar  

  • 1766  Their respective copies will be delivered . . . on payment of Two Spanish Dollars for each.
  • 1825  His Majesty has ordered that a tender and payment of British silver money to the amount of 4s 4d shall be considered as equivalent to the tender and payment of one Spanish dollar.
  • 1958  In Nova Scotia all sorts of coins had circulated from earliest days, but the Spanish dollar, which was obtained through the trade with the West Indies, was one of the commonest coins and at one time was even imported by the British Government to pay its troops.