You are exactly correct that Dutch is Germanic in origin--as is English. Both evolved from Low German or Low Saxon ( "low" meaning the tribal variant spoken in the plains areas as opposed to Bavarian uplands ). "d" and "t" are speech fricatives produced by the exact same mechanical process with the only difference being that the "d" is voiced and the "t" is not. However this was not always so and not consistent from tribe to tribe. When I studied linguistics we had a most informative tour of how consonant sounds such as "d" and "t" & "p" and "b" subtly changed as the old Low German evolved to Middle German and further adaptations spread across the channel as tribes migrated. Which makes it feasible that when the retained spelling is "thaler" but the "t" has that voiced "d" sound of "dollar." Boy did all that sound pedantic (yuk)!! Seriously though, as an undergraduate history major, I took some of the most fascinating elective courses and structural linguistics was one . It took graduate degrees in other areas to make myself $ marketable, but history undergrad gave me a serious edge when playing the old Genus Edition of Trivial Pursuit. [Talk about digressing, I need to get back on topic of thread.]

"And if you ever want to see pure evil, you should have seen the way her eyes glinted when she watched some man who’d talked back to her once and who’d just heard his name on the list of those getting nothing above basic pittance. "
She was the most memorable villian in the book for me.

"so he had to beg in public for relief from his needs, like any lousy moocher., listing all his troubles and miseries, down to his patched drawers and his wife’s head colds, hoping that ‘the family’ would throw him the alms. He had to claim miseries, because it’s miseries, not work, that had become the coin of the realm"
For some reason, this is one of my favorite quotes of the book.

Beautifully portrayed in the movie.

Yeah. That would be great here:

http://www.galtsgulchonline.com/posts...

Where is that located? Which "railroad tunnel" section are you referring to?

The American version evolved from the Dutch usage in New Amsterdam (later New York) as the leeuwendaalder or lion dollar spread to all Thirteen Colonies. Shortly after the American Revolution, the word, "dollar" was adopted as the name of the US monetary unit. hence, "Dollar"

Jeff Allen to Dagny: “I don’t think it will be any use. But there’s nothing to do in the East except sit under some hedge and wait to die. I don’t think I’d mind it much now, the dying. I know it would be a lot easier. Only I think that it’s a sin to sit down and let your life go, without making a try for it.”

That is a good quote. Perhaps someone should start a new thread to discuss Anthem?

Kellogg to Dagny: “Do you know that the United States is the only country in history that has ever used its own monogram as a symbol of depravity? Ask yourself why. Ask yourself how long a country that did that could hope to exist, and whose moral standards have destroyed it. It was the only country in history where wealth was not acquired by looting, but by production, not by force, but by trade, the only country whose money was the symbol of man’s right to his own mind, to his work, to his life, to his happiness, to himself. If this is evil, by the present standards of the world, if this is the reason for damning us, then we – we, the dollar chasers and makers – accept it and choose to be damned by that world. We choose to wear the sign of the dollar on our foreheads, proudly, as our badge of nobility – the badge we are willing to live for and, if need be, to die.”

Dagny to Kellogg: “I know that this stands for something.”
“The dollar sign? For a great deal… It stands – as the money of a free country – for achievement, for success, for ability, for man’s creative power – and, precisely for these reasons, it is used as a brand of infamy… Incidentally, do you know where that sign comes from? It stands for the initials of the United States.”

Dagny to Kellogg: “Where are you going?”
“West.”
“On a ‘special assignment’?”
“No. For a month’s vacation with some friends.”
“A vacation? And it’s that important to you?”
“More important than anything on earth.”

Dagny to Kellogg: “You’re still working for a living, aren’t you?”
“Yes.”
“You don’t seem to be making very much.”
“I’m making enough for my needs – and for nobody else’s.”

Dagny to Kellogg: “Have you ever heard of a woman named Ivy Starnes?”
“Oh yes.”
“I keep thinking that this was what she would have enjoyed – the spectacle of those passengers tonight. This was what she’s after. But we – we can’t live with it, you and I, can we? No one can live with it. It’s not possible to live with it.”
“What makes you think that ivy Starnes’ purpose is life?”

Dagny to Jeff Allen: She remembered that money inside a man’s pocket had the power to turn into confidence inside his mind; she took a hundred-dollar bill from her bag and slipped it into his hand. “As advance on wages,” she said.
“Yes ma’am.”

“What about us?” snapped the nervous woman.
Dagny turned to her, answering in the formal, inflectionless monotone of a business executive, “There have been no cases of raider gang attacks upon frozen trains – unfortunately.”