The next day Eva took us out in the countryside to a town called Kutna Hora, about an hour and a half from Prague. This town was based on a silver mine and, starting in 1300, was the mint for King Wenceslas II for all of the Czech lands. At its prime it was a prosperous town and had about 60,000 inhabitants and was the financial center of the country. But when the mines played out in the mid-1500s, the mint was closed. The town now has about 20,000 residents. Several sizes of coins were minted here. The largest coin was called the Thaler (pronounced "taller"). This was the origin of our term "dollar".