Why do most English speaking countries use "dollars&quo

Why do the Commonwealth countries(former British colonies) use dollar as their currency?

Canada uses Canadian dollars
Australia uses Australian dollars
Jamaica uses Jamaican dollars and etc.

If they are tied to the Great Britain, shouldn't they use "Canadian pounds", "New Zealand pounds" and "Australian pounds"?

How come none of the Commonwealth nations uses "pound" besides the UK?

Eventually, all pounds will be replaced with euro, so why bother?

hmm. Not quite sure. Probably the same reasons that the US uses the word dollar:

From Wikipedia:
"The use of the Spanish dollar and the Maria Theresa thaler as legal tender for the early United States and its fractions were the mainstay of commerce. They are the reasons for the name of the nation's currency.[citation needed] By the American Revolution in 1775, these Spanish currency became even more important. They were backed by paper money authorized by the individual colonies and the Continental Congress.[4] However, the word dollar was in use in the English language as slang or mis-pronunciation for the thaler for about 200 years before the American Revolution, with many quotes in the plays of Shakespeare referring to dollars as money."

"In the early 19th century, a British five-shilling piece, or crown, was sometimes called a dollar, probably because its appearance was similar to the Spanish dollar. This expression appeared again in the 1940s, when U.S. troops came to the UK during World War II. At the time a U.S. dollar was worth about 5s., so some of the U.S. soldiers started calling it a dollar.

More from Wikipedia:
In 1841, the new Province of Canada declared that its dollar was equal to one-tenth the gold Eagle coin which was 10 U.S. dollar and was worth 5 s. (5 shillings) in local currency. The silver Spanish dollars were rated at 5 s. 1 d. and the British sovereign was rated at £1 4 s. 4 d. , the proper value due to its gold content compared to that of the gold U.S. dollar.

The Province of Canada declared that all accounts would be kept in dollars and cents as of January 1, 1858, and ordered the issue of the first official Canadian coins in the same year. The dollar was pegged at par with the U.S. dollar, on a gold standard of 1 dollar = 23.22 grains gold.

However, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland did not adopt the same dollar (see Nova Scotian dollar and Newfoundland dollar). Nova Scotia retained its own currency until 1871, but Newfoundland issued its own currency until joining Confederation in 1949, although the value of the Newfoundland dollar was adjusted in 1895 to make it equal to the Canadian dollar.

Australia:
In 1965, the Prime Minister, Robert Menzies, wished to name the currency "the royal" and other names such as "the austral", "the oz", "the boomer", "the roo", "the kanga", "the emu", "the digger", "the kwid" and, jokingly, "the ming" (the nickname of Menzies) were also proposed. Due to Menzies' influence, the name "royal" was settled on, and trial designs were prepared and printed by the Reserve Bank of Australia. The choice of name for the currency proved unpopular, and it was later shelved in favour of "dollar". (Wikipedia)

The Pound will never be replaced by the Euro.

British coins are currently changing their designs.

All coins - 1p, 2p, 5p, 10p, 20p, 50p and £1 - are changing their designs (on the backs of them) that they've had on them since the British currency was decilmalised in 1971. The only coin that is remaining the same will be the £2.

Currently, the 1p coin has a portcullis and chains on the back, the 2p has the Prince of Wales' ostrich feathers, the 5p has a thistle with a crown, the 10p has a lion wearing a crown, the 20p a rose with a crown, the 50p has Britannia with her lion, trident and shield, and the £1 coin has various designs.

But all these designs, on these coins for around 40 years, are now being got rid of and new designs have been made for them.

If Britain was going to get rid of the Pound any time soon, or any time in the next 40 years or so, it wouldnot go through the trouble of changing the designs on its coins, costing probably thousands of Pounds.

So those EU-enthusiasts who are hoping that Britain will soon adopt the euro, can just abandon all hope.

Not all Commonwealth countries use the dollar.

British Crown Dependencies such as the Falklands, Gibraltar, St Helena, Ascension Island, Tristan da Cunha etc all use the Pound.

Other nonCommonwealth countries that use the Pound are Egypt, Sudan and Syria.

Australia used the Pound until 1966, now it uses the Dollar.

But is has nothing to do with the American dollar.

Other Commonwealth countries that used the Pound are New Zealand, which used the Pound until 1967, Cyrpus (until it adopted the Euro in 2008), Canada (until 1859), Fiji (until 1969), Bermuda (until 1970), Zimbabwe (until 1970).

Also, the Republic of Ireland used the Pound until 2002.

In keeping with language, the proper name for Britain's currency is the Pound Sterling. "Sterling" derives from about the year 775, when silver coins known as “sterlings” were issued in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms.

240 of them were minted from a pound of silver - hence the term "pound."

The pound sign (£) derives from the blackletter "L", from the abbreviation LSD – librae, solidi, denarii – used for the pounds, shillings and pence of the original duodecimal currency system. Libra was the basic Roman unit of weight, derived from the Latin word for scales or balance.

The origins of the £ lie in the reign of the Anglo-Saxon monarch, King Offa, who ruled Mercia.

The penny swiftly spread throughout the other Anglo-Saxon kingdoms and became the standard coin of what was to become England.

And we're not about to give the 3 up for euro Monopoly money.

"Dollar" comes from "Thaler" which was a Bohemian (Czech) coin issued in 1515.

The US uses the dollar because of the Spanish Dollar. This was a currency that Spain issued to its colonies, and it also became legal tender in the American colonies.

By the American Revolution in 1775 they were backed by paper money authorized by the individual colonies and the Continental Congress.

However, the word dollar was in use in the English language as slang or mis-pronunciation for the thaler for about 200 years before the American Revolution, with many quotes in the plays of Shakespeare referring to dollars as money.

Scotland also used the dollar in the 1600s.

I don't like pounds, it's a weight unit (lbs).

My grandmother weights 1,000,000 lbs.
She's so dear.
Yup, dear granny LOL

<<I don't like pounds, it's a weight unit (lbs). >>

Well, what do you think "peso" means? Many monetary units today trace their names back to the weight of the metal used as the basis of their currency -- the British are no different.

Adam : « In keeping with language, the proper name for Britain's currency is the Pound Sterling. "Sterling" derives from about the year 775, when silver coins known as “sterlings” were issued in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms. »

« Etymoline » n'est pas de ton avis : ils hésitent entre une origine moyen-anglaise datée de 1297 ou une origine française. L'origine française est bien plus probable dans la mesure ou AF <esterlin> est attesté entre 1160 & 1175, soit au moins 120 ans avant <sterling>.

<<Anglo-Saxon kingdoms>>

Anglo-Saxons also note (used)--guess what--marks as their unit weight of currency. Now who does that sound like?

In England the "mark" never appeared as a coin, but as a money of account only, and apparently came into use in the 10th century through the Danes. According to 19th century sources, it first equalled 100 pence, but after the Norman Conquest equalled 160 pence = 2/3 of the Pound Sterling, or 13 shillings and 4 pence.[2] In Scotland, the Merk Scots comprised a silver coin of this value, issued first in 1570 and afterwards in 1663.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_%28money%29