DCHP-1 Online

dollar † 

• 1 n. Hist. in colonial days (until 1858 officially), the Spanish dollar, a silver coin valued at so many shillings Halifax currency or York currency.

  See also: half-dollar  Halifax currency  silver dollar (def. 1)  Spanish dollar  York currency  

  • The currency system in colonial Canada was in a highly disorganized state until 1858, when legislation came into effect in United Canada requiring that government accounts be kept in dollars and cents, i.e., in the decimal system, which had been in unofficial use in many quarters for some years.

• 2 n. the Canadian dollar, a monetary unit of 100 cents, taken over from the decimal system used in the United States and officially adopted in 1858 in United Canada; also, the equivalent of this unit in paper money or coin.