The Dollar is the name of several currencies in North America, descended from the Peso of the Spanish Empire. Shortly after achieving independence, the new United States realized the necessity of a unified - and national - currency. Prior to this time, most financial transactions were made with either paper money or foreign coin (most especially the "Spanish Dollar", that is, the peso), with values in a theoretical form of the British £sd system. At the time, the various colonies defined the dollar in terms of £sd differently. The affect of this was to make a unified denomination (dollar) with local currencies (£sd). The dollar was defined by the various colonies as follows: