• Email Us: [email protected]
  • Contact Us: +1 718 874 1545
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Medical Market Report

  • Home
  • All Reports
  • About Us
  • Contact Us

What Is The Origin Of The Dollar $ign?

November 12, 2024 by Deborah Bloomfield

The dollar sign may be one of the most recognized symbols in the world. More than a denotation of currency, it’s become a potent emblem of wealth, capitalism, and (in some imaginations) either freedom or greed. Its origins, however, are not so clear. 

One of the most common misconceptions is that the symbol stands for the US, as in the United States, with the letter S being overlaid by the two vertical lines of the U. This erroneous idea was given a huge bump of publicity by the writer and evangelist of free markets Ayn Rand in her 1957 novel Atlas Shrugged.

Advertisement

“The dollar sign? For a great deal. It stands on the vest of every fat, piglike figure in every cartoon, for the purpose of denoting a crook, a grafter, a scoundrel—as the one sure-fire brand of evil. It stands—as the money of a free country—for achievement, for success, for ability, for man’s creative power—and, precisely for these reasons, it is used as a brand of infamy,” Rand writes.

“Incidentally, do you know where that sign comes from? It stands for the initials of the United States,” she declares. 

Like many nice ideas, it’s not true. Until its founding in 1776, the region was known as the United Colonies of North America and some suggest the dollar sign had already been in use before it became simply known as the United States. 

There’s a similar theory that the dollar sign was formed out of the initials US, not to denote the United States, but meaning “unit of silver.” However, this is also presumed to be another false etymology.

Advertisement

Another older theory is that the $ symbol may have been inspired by the pillars of Hercules: the S-shape is a scroll or ribbon wrapped around two vertical lines that represent the pillars. Not many scholars seem to buy this idea today, though.

According to the Federal Reserve Board, the central banking system of the US, the US officially adopted the dollar sign in 1785. They state that the dollar symbol is derived from the Spanish peso, which was commonly used in the region before the dollar gained supremacy.

Evolution of the dollar symbol starting with the shorthand of Peso.

Evolution of the dollar symbol starting with the shorthand of Peso.

Forget the British pound. Before the dollar was established, the Spanish peso was widely circulated in the Americas, even in the British colonies, thanks to its stability and high silver content. 

Pesos were commonly written in shorthand as Ps, which then became amalgamated into the symbol where the P and S overlapped into one form. Eventually, the curve of the P evolved into just straight vertical lines, forming the $ we all know today. 

Advertisement

An alternative version of the story is that the $ symbol actually evolved from the number 8. The peso was called a “piece of eight” because it was worth eight reales, a smaller denomination of Spanish currency. The symbol for the dollar might have originally involved the number 8, perhaps two 8s stacked on top of each other, which evolved into a $ shape. 

Truth be told, there is no categorical evidence that backs up any of these theories. Certainly, the $ symbol was not actively developed by a team of graphic designers following a planned brief. 

On the contrary, it evolved organically over time, taking shape after being scrawled countless times across receipts and bank documents, often with errors and slight variations. After countless repetitions, this tangle of symbols gradually solidified into its modern form. Just as the messy evolution of an organism can be difficult to trace, the origins of symbols and signs can be murky.

Deborah Bloomfield
Deborah Bloomfield

Related posts:

  1. US stock futures lead Asia lower, dollar gains on yen
  2. Adding Gold To Wine Could Be The Key To Making It Taste Better
  3. A New Look At Some Old Fossils Has Just Rewritten The Story Of Human Evolution
  4. The Atlantic Gulf Stream Was Unexpectedly Strong During The Last Ice Age – New Study

Source Link: What Is The Origin Of The Dollar $ign?

Filed Under: News

Primary Sidebar

  • “Powerful Image” Of One Of The World’s Rarest Tigers Exposes The Real Danger In Taman Negara
  • Evolution, Domestication, And A Lot Of Very Good Boys: How Wolves Became Dogs
  • Why Do Orcas Have White Spots Near Their Eyes?
  • Tomb Of First King Of Ancient Maya City Discovered In Belize
  • The Real Reason The Tip Of Your Tape Measure Wiggles Like That
  • The “Haunting” Last Message From NASA’s Opportunity Rover, Sent From Inside A Planet-Wide Storm
  • Adorable Video Proves Not All Gorillas Hate The Rain. It Might Even Win One A Mate
  • 5,000-Year-Old Rock Art May Show One Of Ancient Egypt’s First Rulers
  • Alzheimer’s-Linked Protein Levels “20 Times Higher” In Newborn Babies – What Does This Mean?
  • Americans Were Asked If They Thought Civil War Was Coming. The Results Were Unexpected
  • Voyager 1 & 2 Could Be Detected From Almost A Light-Year Away With Our Current Technology
  • Dams Have Nudged Earth’s Poles By Over 1 Meter In The Past 200 Years
  • This Sugar Could Be A Cure For Male Pattern Baldness – And It’s Been In Our Bodies All Along
  • “Cosmic Immigrants”: Daytime Star Seen In 1604 May Be An “Alien Type Ia Supernova”
  • Ancient Meteor Crater Thought To Be World’s Oldest May Be 800 Million Years Younger Than We Realized
  • Celestial Fish And Chips And A Solar Cataclysm Shortlisted For Astronomy Photographer Of The Year
  • Tortoises Have Feelings Too, Or At Least Moods
  • What Would Happen If You Threw A Paper Airplane Out Of The ISS? New Study Finds Out
  • Tonight Will Be The Perfect Time To Witness The Moon Illusion
  • This Long-Extinct Animal Once Possessed The Sharpest Teeth On Planet Earth
  • Business
  • Health
  • News
  • Science
  • Technology
  • +1 718 874 1545
  • +91 78878 22626
  • [email protected]
Office Address
Prudour Pvt. Ltd. 420 Lexington Avenue Suite 300 New York City, NY 10170.

Powered by Prudour Network

Copyrights © 2025 · Medical Market Report. All Rights Reserved.

Go to mobile version