[dragonwriter]

To be fair, the headline doesn't say US dollars, and both the name and symbol were taken from the Spanish dollar, which was not unknown to Columbus.

[GauntletWizard]

It very much was unknown to Columbus - The first spanish "Dollars" were minted with New World silver.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thaler#Etymology / https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thaler#Spain_and_France