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a "tolar" was a kind of a coin used in those times. It may be interesting that the name of this coin originates from the name Joachimstal, which is the German name for a Czech town today called Jáchymov. During 1500s, silver was mined in large quantities around that town, and the coins made of that silver quickly became popular. They were called "Joachimstaler Münze" (which just means "coins from Joachimstal"), which quickly got shortened just to the "taler", and then mangled to "tolar". By the way, it's not by chance that it looks very similar to the word "dollar". "Tolar" made it into Netherlands and the Dutch colonists in America used it as well, mangling the word a bit more (at least if I recall it correctly). So that's where America got its dollar.
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