When and by whom was the sign invented? Why does the “$” sign represent a dollar?

Few people in Russia (and in most countries of the planet) have not held aesthetic greenish bills in their hands - a product of the American Federal Reserve System, laconically called “dollar” without any specification (although dollars are available not only in the USA, but also in Australia, Canada, Ethiopia, New Zealand and other countries). At the turn of the XX-XXI centuries, this currency took a strong dominant position in the world financial system and, despite significant national and global economic problems, does not intend to give up its positions.

Due to the popularity of American money, its seeming irreplaceability and the hypothetical prospects of a grandiose “fall from its pedestal,” the history of the emergence of the dollar, its design and approval as a world currency is of interest to an increasing number of Russians.

But even experts who offer the public many theories about the origin, its name and the acquisition of its “trademark” green color are unable to answer their questions unambiguously.

How did the name of the currency come about?

One of the most rational theories of the origin of the word “dollar” is its connection with the name of silver coins minted in the Middle Ages in Bohemia (then it was a German land, and now a Czech one) - joachimsthalers, commonly called thalers.

Gradually they became a very popular means of payment, first in Germany and then throughout Europe.

Each nation gave this monetary unit a name that was similar in sound but adapted to its own linguistic system. So, the Spaniards called it “talero”, the Scandinavians – “daler”, the Italians – “tallero”, the Dutch – “dalder”, and the British – “daller”. Among the latter, the coin later turned into “dollar”, and then “dollar”.

However, “thalers-dalers” were not assigned to any of the European countries as a national currency. Later, on their basis, silver reals appeared in Spain, ecus in France, and crowns in England. However, the above name, together with European settlers and their monetary savings (in particular, Spanish “dollars”, or pesos, as the British called them), managed to migrate to America, where it unexpectedly took root.

The emergence of its own coin system

The history of the dollar begins at the end of the 18th century. This period became for the United States the era of the emergence of its own monetary system, based on the use of national silver money as a means of payment - dollars weighing 27 g and containing pure silver of 24.1 g (although the Spanish dollar was also in circulation for a long time, penetrated into North America from the Spanish colonies, which mined silver and had their own mints).

In 1794, the first metal dollars began to be minted in the United States (approved by Congress as national money on June 6, 1785), and in 1797 banknotes (paper notes) were also born.

At the same time, the latter cannot be considered full-fledged, because Each American state at that time had the opportunity to freely issue such bills as they liked best, which caused significant differences in design. Only in the second half of the 19th century was the central government able to take the issue of paper money under its sole control.

Who gave the world the $ symbol and how?

The origin story of the famous dollar sign is also shrouded in mystery. There are several theories, each of which has a right to exist. The official version is recognized according to which the above sign was first used in 1778 by the New Orleans large merchant and planter Oliver Pollock, an Irishman by birth. He was a supplier to American military-patriotic forces during the war with the British.

During the settlement process, the businessman entered the proceeds into his ledgers with a sign that combined the letters P and S. Pollock sent the accounts issued in this way to American Congressman Robert Morris, who became the first high-ranking Yankee to use such a dollar sign in official government documents.

The basis for this designation was the Spanish pesos minted in the territory of modern Mexico. The peso was briefly denoted “P”, and an “S” was added to this letter, i.e. pesos in the plural.

After some time, to simplify writing, S was superimposed on P and made a single sign with the latter. And 2 vertical sticks in the dollar sign began to be placed because 2 columns were depicted on the peso, which were a symbol of the Pillars of Gibraltar (in the British colonies, these Spanish coins were even called “Dollars with Pillars”).

“Patriotic” and “silver” versions

According to the first, the dollar symbol comes from the abbreviation of the USA and is a superposition of two letters - U and S. Later, presumably, the lower part of the letter U disappeared, and the sides moved closer together, which led to the appearance of two characteristic vertical sticks in the sign.

According to the “silver” version, the mechanism for forming the sign was similar to that described above, but the letters S and U meant something else: S was an abbreviation for “silver” - silver, and the letter U was often placed above it, meaning “unit” - unit, piece, ingot . Later, the U moved down, overlapped with the S, and lost its lower part, causing the sign to transform into $.

National theories

In accordance with the so-called “Germanic” theory, it appeared as a result of rethinking the design of one of the sides of the Austrian thaler. The obverse of the coin contained an image of the crucified Jesus, and the reverse - a snake entwining a cross. Proponents of this theory believe that this snake became the basis for the $ symbol.

According to the “British” version, the dollar sign allegedly came from the shilling symbol, which was designated by the letter S, sometimes “reinforced” by a vertical bar. In the 18th-19th centuries, shillings were secretly minted by counterfeiters in the North American colonies, which the British authorities actively fought against.

Adherents of the “Portuguese” theory claim that the Portuguese had a sign very similar to the dollar symbol. It denoted a comma or dot, used in modern exact sciences to separate tenths and subsequent fractions of a number from a whole.

And finally, according to the “Roman” theory, the dollar sign comes from the sestertius (an ancient Roman silver and later brass coin), which was designated by the letters HS. The Americans put H on S, the first one lost the crossbar, and thus the $ sign appeared.

“Slave” and mystical versions

According to the so-called “slave” version, the $ sign is a graphic representation of the block in which slaves were shackled, and can also be a modification of the letter S, with which English language The word “slave” begins.

Adherents of the mystical theory claim that the dollar sign is a Masonic designation for the Temple of King Solomon, including the letter S, which begins the name of the famous ruler, and the symbol of the two pillars of the Temple (as is known, the founding fathers of the United States of America were influential members of Masonic lodges).

Paper note design

A description of the theories of the origin of the US dollar will be incomplete without a story about the evolution of the appearance of the dollar bill, which was constantly changing. The paper dollar received its modern appearance in 1928. Its design was developed by artist Sergei Makronovsky, who emigrated from Russia, and depicted portraits of prominent American statesmen on the banknotes.

On one side of the dollar bill, Makronovsky placed elements of the Great Seal (the state emblem of the States) - an eagle with arrows and an olive branch - coupled with an image of an unfinished pyramid, above which in a shining triangle he placed the “All-Seeing Eye” of the so-called “Great Architect of the Universe” (again Masonic echo). By the way, the eagle is still widely used in the United States as an official logo, but the “peeping” pyramid can only be found on one-dollar bills.

There is still no official explanation for the presence of such strange symbols on US banknotes. Some researchers are inclined to believe that Masonic symbols were used at the instigation of the country's top leadership, while others believe that Nicholas Roerich, the famous Russian artist, mystic philosopher and educator who developed the ideas of Buddhism, was involved in the development of the design of the American currency. However, no documents or evidence could be found to support the latter theory.

How the American Banknote Turned Green

The history of the origin of the “branded” dollar color is very interesting. After the outbreak of war between North and South, both warring sides needed huge amounts of money to cover military expenses. And on July 17, 1861, the American Congress passed an act ordering the Treasury to issue new banknotes for an astronomical amount at that time - $ 60 million.

Until that time, banknotes were mostly black and white, but the advent of photography made it possible to easily counterfeit dollars photographically, and it was decided to switch to the production of color banknotes.

The New York printing company American Bank Note Company took over the order. She had to produce a huge number of banknotes, since the government act of July 17 authorized the issuance of bills in denominations of only 5, 10 and 20 dollars. Printing specialists analyzed the situation from a purely practical point of view: how much ink they would need for the entire volume, and what kind was available.

After checking the paint stocks in the warehouses, it turned out that most of all there was... green. This is how more than 7 million banknotes with a green back were printed. And an additional way to protect against counterfeiters was the use of special watermarks on banknotes in the form of almost invisible vertical stripes 2-3 inches wide.

The production of such banknotes started in 1869 after the US Department of the Treasury signed a contract with Messers J. M. & Cox (Philadelphia).

The Americans immediately gave them the nickname “greenbacks” (“green backs”), which later became attached to all types of American currency, regardless of texture and color. At first, dollar bills were made using different colors. Monotonous green coloring appeared only in 1929. This fact is explained by the fact that green dyes were cheaper than others and more resistant to external influences.

In addition, the color green purely psychologically increased confidence in money and evoked a feeling of optimism. This tradition was not broken for a long time, and only in 2004 did dollar bills of other colors came off the printing presses.

It is not known exactly who invented the dollar sign in the form of “$”, but today it is widely used in the world not only for American currency, but also for the monetary units of countries such as Trinidad and Tobago (TT$), Barbados (Bds$), Australia (A$ or Au$). What does this symbol mean and where did it come from? Its exact origins are shrouded in mystery, but it predates the United States of America with which it is most often associated. The reduction, so beloved by the Americans, is not their merit, it is famous rich history, which has many versions . Today it is a symbol of prosperity, prosperity, wealth.

The name “dollar” has a long history. It started with the word "Joachimsthaler", which has nothing to do with banking sector. This is exactly what they called a coin minted in the Czech town of Joachimsthal, near the mine where silver ore was mined, back in the 16th century. This word shortened in order to pronounce the name of this coin more conveniently and quickly, and it turned out to be “thaler”.

Residents of Denmark, in accordance with their speech patterns, began to call the coin “daler”. And the residents of Great Britain, in turn, over time turned this name into the well-known “dollar”. Thanks to these metamorphoses in England, from the 17th century, any silver coin that was in any way similar to a thaler began to be called a “dollar,” which Shakespeare mentions in his work “Macbeth.”

Nowadays, the most common way to draw a dollar is to use the Latin letter “S”, which is most often crossed out with two (less often one) vertical stripes. This designation, where the dollar is depicted with one stripe (photo 1), is mainly common in the press, since when small font sizes are used, two vertical lines are worse.

The first person to use this sign in the United States itself was businessman Oliver Pollock, a weapons supplier to the American army. He used this symbol in accounting documents. And in 1773, one of the government officials who worked with Pollock dared to draw this sign on official financial documents. The first book to use this designation for national currency was The American Accountant, published in 1797. Since then, this year has been considered the official birth date of the generally accepted designation of the US dollar.

Where exactly does this sign designation come from? The history of the birth of the symbol, like its meaning, is shrouded big amount secrets and riddles.

Since the currency's inception in 1785, a variety of origin theories have been put forward (from Spanish to Masonic). There is still no clear plausible version, so it makes sense, having considered the main ones, to lean towards the one you like the most.

Theories of the appearance of the sign

There are many versions of the appearance of this popular sign. One of the most common is its Spanish origin, from the abbreviation of the Spanish currency, the peso “P’s.” It is believed that the history of the origin of the sign was influenced by the last 2 symbols. This version does not hold up well to criticism, since the last character in this abbreviation of the Spaniards only denoted the plural.

There is another option that this designation originates from the abbreviation of the name of Spain in English - “Spain”. This sign could be seen on the gold bars that the Spaniards brought from America to their homeland. The appearance of 2 dashes (photo 2) in this version is explained by the fact that one was placed when the ingots left the New World, and the second when they were imported into the Old World.

According to one version of American historians, the dollar symbol “$” comes from the abbreviation “PTSI”, which was used for Bolivian silver. According to another “silver” version, the appearance of the sign was caused by the abbreviation of the letter “U” in the phrase “Silver Unit” (“silver association”). Silver is also associated with the use of the silver symbol not only on coins of America, but also of Europe. It could be found already under Charles V with the discovery of mines in Mexico.

A popular version is that this designation comes from the abbreviation of the monetary unit of Ancient Rome (sestertius). It consisted of the Latin letters “LLS” or “lls”, when combined, the well-known sign subsequently appeared. There is also a religious option: the Austrian thaler depicts Jesus on a cross entwined with a snake. No less interesting is the Masonic version of the origin of the dollar sign, according to which the “$” symbol alludes to the Temple of King Solomon and indicates the first letter of his name and the 2 columns that the temple had.

American patriots prefer the option that this designation is an abbreviation and combination of the first 2 letters of the name of their country (photo 3). American propaganda greatly popularized this version.

Many US citizens accept only it as the only true one. For them, it is a symbol not just of currency, but also of the country, prosperity and stability.

Many citizens have held American money in their hands more than once. However, most of them never asked the question about history of the origin of the "$" symbol. Researchers still cannot come to a definite agreement on why this symbol settled on the American currency and how this sign was created. There are several versions and we will briefly look at them in this article.

Versions of the origin of the dollar sign

First version. Most scientists believe that the dollar sign is inextricably linked with the Latin letter "S". If we dive into history and become " delve“there more carefully, we learn that even during the time of Spain’s colonization of its American colonies, a huge amount of gold jewelry was found, which was melted down into ingots and which were then exported to the metropolis. Each ingot had the letter “S” on it. This was the designation destination country "Spain" When these treasures reached their destination, that is, Spain, the letter was crossed out with a slash for the first time, and when they arrived in America again, the slash was struck again.

Second version suggests that the dollar sign appeared in Ancient Greece. If we get acquainted with the myths of this beautiful country in more detail, we will learn that the demigod Hercules created pillars on both sides of the Strait of Gibraltar and which were named in his honor - the Pillars of Hercules. This guy had a high opinion of himself, so he decided to perpetuate the memory of his amazing journey, well, in this article we will not analyze his wanderings around the planet. So, the pillars themselves represent two slashes, and the letter “S” represents the ever-raging waves.

Third version. Some researchers admit the possibility of the appearance of the "$" sign as an erroneous decoding of the term "peso". In Spain in 1733, there was a special colonial tradition of showing profits in the books of accounts by abbreviating the abbreviation "peso" to 2 letters "S" and "P". As time passed, the letter "P" became more and more erased, and began to resemble a simple line that crosses out the letter "S". Thus, instead of 2 letters denoting the word " peso", eventually the symbol "$" was formed.

A man named Greenspan, who was the head of the US Federal Reserve System, suggests that the very famous and popular writer Ayn Rand played an invaluable role in the appearance of the dollar symbol. In one of her books, Rand casually mentioned that the dollar sign “$” stands for nothing more than the United States (USA), and when the first letters are combined, this is exactly what this symbol is obtained. Over time, the letter "U" seems to " got worn out" and took the form of 2 oblique lines crossing out the letter "S", which when combined means the sign "$".

The Russian ruble has finally acquired an official graphic symbol - now the national currency will be denoted by a crossed out letter “R”. About why currencies need special graphic signs and why most symbols of the world's monetary units contain horizontal "dashes" - in the material on the site.

Why do currencies need graphic symbols?

Not every currency in the world can boast of its own sign. Thus, Latvian lats, Swiss francs, Danish, Norwegian, Swedish kronor, Croatian kunas and many other currencies of the world do without special symbols. In total, according to the global Unicode standard (the standard for encoding characters and signs of written languages), at the moment only about thirty world currencies have officially registered graphic symbols. Among them there are also those that are no longer in use - for example, signs of the Italian lira (£), German mark (ℳ), and French franc (₣), which became obsolete after the introduction of the euro.

Meanwhile, it’s hard not to admit that currencies that have their own graphic symbols, are characterized by a much wider distribution than monetary units, which do not have their own symbols. Thus, the dollar ($), pound (£), euro (€), and yen (¥) are undoubtedly not only the most popular, but also the strongest and most influential currencies in the world.

Approval of the ruble symbol

Introduction of the official symbol Russian ruble, according to the Bank of Russia, became the most important event in the country’s economy. “Moscow lays claim to the status of an international financial center. An objective need has arisen to introduce a symbol of the national currency, recognized within the country and abroad,” said Elvira Nabiullina, Chairman of the Central Bank of Russia, on December 11, presenting the approved designation of the Russian currency.

The adoption of one sign as a designation of a monetary unit allows, in addition, to unify all variants of its previous spelling: thus, after the official approval of the ruble symbol, there will no longer be any doubt about how best to say about the ruble in writing- 100 rubles, 100 rubles. or 100 rub.

What do the symbols of different world currencies have in common?

Some of the graphic images of monetary units developed naturally, as a result of various historical events, and some were formed during the development of many options, as well as popular votes. So, it is impossible to present any special requirements for creating a symbol of a particular currency. However, the graphic image must be convenient and easy to write, otherwise it will be useless - after all, currency signs are introduced in order to become recognizable and replace the full names of currencies in writing.

Dollar, euro, pound, Japanese yen, Vietnamese dong, Israeli new shekel

Graphic symbols of almost all currencies in the world have horizontal “dashes” in their structure. This is not only the British pound sterling (£), the euro (€), the Ukrainian hryvnia (₴), the Japanese yen (¥), the Kazakh tenge (₸) and, finally, the symbol of the Russian ruble that has received official status. Thus, the symbols of the Indian rupee (₹), South Korean won (₩) and many other currencies of the world are also written using one or more horizontal stripes.

Such stripes on signs are a generally recognized symbol of the stability of the currency in whose writing they are present. That is why, as representatives of the Central Bank of Russia themselves stated, the line is also used in the symbol of the ruble.

From Russia with love

The approved symbol of the Russian ruble, which is a crossed out “R”, is not the first sign of the national currency, but it is the only one officially recognized. It should be added, however, that for a long time it was the most popular of the unofficial designations of the Russian currency.

During times Russian Empire There was another way to write the ruble: it was to combine the capital letters “r” and “u”. According to the most common version, the "p" was turned 90 degrees counterclockwise, and then the "y" was written on top of the letter. This designation of the ruble was indicated not after the numbers, as today, but above them. However, despite the attempts of some publishers, this ruble sign was not widely used in print.

Now the graphic symbol of the ruble has become - and is already completely legal - the crossed out letter "R". This sign was approved by the Central Bank of Russia on December 11. The selected symbol was recognized as the most popular based on the results of a vote that the Central Bank conducted on its website. A one-ruble coin with a new graphic symbol of the national currency will appear in circulation in 2014.

Approved symbol of the ruble. Photo: cbr.ru

In early November, the Central Bank submitted the graphic symbol of the ruble for public discussion. The finalist signs were selected by a working group of the Bank of Russia from more than three thousand options. The crossed out “P” was supported by more than 61% of respondents during the voting.

Crossed out letters and more

Since horizontal stripes are a fairly popular “attribute” of currency symbols, it is not surprising that there are already a number of monetary units in the world, the signs of which are very similar to the new ruble designation. Thus, most countries in which pesos are used to pay use the American dollar sign ($) or a similar one, only with two transverse stripes, to designate their currencies. But in the Philippines, the peso, meanwhile, is denoted by a different symbol - ₱, which is similar to the new designation of the Russian ruble.

Symbols of various currencies of the world: including the American dollar, Korean won, Netherlands Antilles guilder

The Nigerian naira is also crossed out - however, already with two stripes (₦). In addition, the Ukrainian hryvnia (₴) and the Laotian kip (₭) have similar designations - in the form of crossed out letters.

In the graphic designs of some national currencies, horizontal lines are present in a different way. Thus, the new Israeli shekel looks more like a beautiful rectangular pattern (₪), that of the country of Bangladesh - like a solid sign from the Russian alphabet (৳), and the guilder of the Netherlands Antilles - like a mathematical notation for a function (ƒ).

Where did the most famous currency symbols come from?

Today there is no single view on the origin of the $ sign, but it is quite possible that the American currency owes its characteristic design to the inhabitants of Foggy Albion. The fact is that the English king George III at one time ordered the use of Spanish reals, which cost 1/8 of the English pound sterling, in circulation. This money was called "piece of eight", which eventually became the abbreviated "peso". Soon they began to be used to pay with them in the North American colonies of England, where they also began to be called dollars.

The crossed out eight was wisely chosen as the written symbol for "piece of eight". However, soon this spelling turned out to be too long and inconvenient, as a result of which the symbol turned into a “truncated” eight - $.

According to the theory of American Patriots, $, however, originated differently: becoming a simplified combination of the letters "U" and "S" (the first letters of the name of the United States - US), superimposed on each other. Another version of the appearance of the American dollar symbol says that the “progenitors” of the $ sign were the Spaniards, who wrote down the peso currency by combining the letters “P” and “S”.

The Roots of Fancy Writing British pound are hidden in the Latin letter "L", supplemented horizontally with a line (or two lines) in the middle. “L” itself comes from the Latin word libra (libra, pound), denoting the main measure of weight in Ancient Rome and England.

The pound - £ or ₤ - is used not only in the UK, but also in some other countries around the world.

The euro, as a young currency, received its sign as a result of an analysis of the public opinion of Europeans. It is believed that the authors of € were four experts, whose names for some reason it was decided not to disclose.

According to the European Commission, the graphic image of the euro carries the significance of European civilization (symbolized by the Greek letter “epsilon”), identity with Europe itself (the letter “E”) and stability (parallel lines crossing the letter).

From $ to €

The first use of a symbol of any (some) currency dates back to 1972. It may be necessary if, for example, the symbol of the required currency is not available in a computer font.

Designation of any currency

The sign of some currency is a circle from which, like the sun, four rays extend at an angle of 90 degrees relative to each other.

Anna Teplitskaya

Why does the “$” sign represent a dollar?

"$" IS ONE OF THE MOST RECOGNIZABLE SYMBOLS OF THE MODERN TIME, most people unmistakably identify an "S" with one or two vertical "sticks" as the dollar sign. The dollar is the main monetary unit not only in the United States, but also in many other countries, so the dollar sign “$” is used to denote not only the American dollar, but also the currencies of other countries, with the addition of additional letters to the main symbol indicating ownership of one or another to the state: for example, Trinidad and Tobago - TT$, Barbados - Bds$, Australia - A$ or Au$, and so on.

Why did “S” become the basis for designating the American currency, since the word “dollar” does not even have such a letter? The fact is that initially “$” is not a dollar sign, but a peso sign.

In eight countries (Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Mexico, Philippines and Uruguay) banknotes are called pesos

The history of the word “dollar” began in the 16th century in the Czech Republic. Europe then became rich in silver for the first time in a long time. For centuries, Europeans spent gold and silver on silk, spices, and other exotic luxuries, leaving the Old World's supply of precious metals depleted. At the beginning of the 16th century, quite large deposits of silver ore were discovered in Tyrol, Saxony (currently regions of Austria and Germany) and Bohemia (modern Czech Republic) and silver coins began to actively displace gold coins from circulation. "Joachimsthaler". This is the name of a sixteenth-century coin that was minted near a silver ore mine in the Czech town of Joachimsthal.

Bohemian Jochimsthalers became the standard in the minting of silver coins and soon the abbreviated word “thaler” was used to refer to any silver currency. Each nation reinterpreted the Czech term in its own way - for example, the Dutch pronounced it as “daalder”, in Slovenia “thaler” became “tolar”. In Denmark, due to the peculiarities of pronunciation, the coin was already called “daler”.

In Great Britain, a little later the name was transformed into a more consonant and modern “dollar”. Thus, in England in the 17th and 18th centuries, “dollars” were the name for any silver coins similar to a thaler - and already in Shakespeare’s “Macbeth” one can find a mention of them:

The King of Norway asked for peace,
But before we bury the dead,
He had to on the island of St. Colm
Give us ten thousand dollars...

When Spain began to actively develop the riches of the New World, European deposits of precious metals lost their former importance, and for the next few hundred years the “silver center” of the world moved to Bolivia, Peru and Mexico. Reals, they were also called “Spanish dollars” or “peso de ocho” (English: “piece of eight” - an eighth part, “octagon”, each real cost 1/8 of an English pound), minted from “Indian” silver, filled Europe and gradually replaced thalers from the market, becoming the main international currency. To understand how great the influence of Spanish money was on the culture and economy of that time, pay attention to the names of some modern national currencies.

Peso de ocho

In eight countries (Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Mexico, Philippines and Uruguay) the currency is called pesos. Chinese yuan and Japanese yen got their names after the shape of Spanish coins (Chinese “yuan” - round) - Japan and China took them as a basis when creating their money. The riyals used in Saudi Arabia and the Qatari riyals also owe their names to the Spanish reals. And finally, the main thing is that when the young state of the United States of America began to mint its own money, it was called the “dollar”; Spanish money was then widely used in payments within the country.

We are accustomed to denoting the dollar with the Latin letter “S”, usually crossed out by two vertical lines, but sometimes by one. The single-vertical version of this symbol is used in press prints, since two thin strokes are printed much less easily when using small-point newspaper fonts.

But where exactly did this dollar designation come from? — The history of the origin of the sign and its meaning are dark and mysterious. The dollar existed for more than two centuries (the American currency appeared in 1785), and during this period of time it managed to acquire many different legends and theories, some of which are very convincing. However, there is no proven version, and we can only, after considering the main assumptions of historians, lean toward the chosen option.

Dollar sign options

One of the most likely versions is the possible origin of the dollar sign from the Spanish abbreviation “P’s”, which once denoted the monetary units of this state - the peso or piastre. Presumably, only a vertical stroke remained from the letter “P”, which made it possible to increase the recording speed, and the letter “S” remained unchanged as a background. On the other hand, in this case “S” is a minor ending letter, since it only denotes the plural of pesos. Therefore, it seems not entirely logical to simplify the letter “P” in accounting documents, indicating a specific monetary unit.

They even write that in 1778, New Orleans businessman Oliver Pollock invented the dollar sign. It is believed that the original meaning of the $ sign is associated with the designation of Spanish piastres, which were actively used in America in those years. In business papers, piastres were traditionally shortened to a combination of the Latin letters PS, the superposition of which one on top of the other gave the sign used today.

Another version says that the letter "S" is the first letter of the word "Spain" (Spain). This point of view is supported by the fact that “S” was placed on gold bars exported from the Spanish colonies of the New World. When the bars were sent to Spain, they were allegedly marked with a vertical line, and after arrival, another was added to control the origin of the gold.

Silver real of Potosi: $ symbol - monogram of the letters PTSI (Potosi)

Some US experts believe that the origin of the “$” sign was the abbreviation “PTSI” - this is how silver from the Bolivian mines of Potosi (the world's largest industrial center of the 16th-17th centuries) was marked, which was used to mint peso coins from 1573 to 1825. These coins were in circulation among the North American colonies of Great Britain.

The crossed out “$” might just as well be the remnants of a crossed out eight, since there was no time in North America Spanish reals were widely used for monetary transactions. They weighed, and accordingly, cost one eighth of the English pound sterling, denoted in writing as “1/8” - and therefore they were called “piece of eight”. Then the second strikethrough could come from the European tradition of scribes to indicate abbreviations in this way.

The “royal” version claims that the dollar sign is nothing more than a stylized coat of arms of the Spanish royal family, since in 1492 King Ferdinand II of Aragon chose the Pillars of Hercules (Columnae Herculis) as a symbol - as the rocks framing the entrance to Gibraltar were called in antiquity Strait (Rock of Gibraltar, North Rock, Mount Jebel Musa in Morocco and Mount Abila near Ceuta). The symbolic Pillars of Hercules are surrounded by a ribbon with the motto “Non plus ultra” (“no further” - meaning “... the limits of the world”). However, with the discovery of new lands beyond Gibraltar by Columbus, the motto changed to “Plus ultra”, that is, “even further”. This motto was chosen by Emperor Charles V, and when the largest silver mines were discovered in Mexico and Peru, the “$” symbol began to be minted on New World coins, which were widely circulated in Europe.

Pillars of Hercules entwined with ribbon (municipality of Seville, Spain, 16th century)

Another popular version says that dollar symbol appeared thanks to the United States of America (it seems to me that this version was invented by the Americans themselves). In English, the name sounds like United States of America (abbreviated as USA). So, this version claims that the symbol is derived from the name of the American state in English. In this case, the first two letters and (U and S) are shifted, and part of the letter U has changed: the lower part of the letter has disappeared, and only two vertical sticks remain, which, in combination with the letter S, gave the symbol to the national currency of the country. It smacks too much of genuine patriotism. This version was promoted by the American writer Ayn Rand.

The "Silver" version is similar to the previous version by simplifying the letter "U", however, according to it, the letters "U" and "S" are short for "Silver Unit".

It is also impossible to exclude the version of the origin of the sign from the designation of the ancient Roman monetary unit of sestertius - sestertius from semis + tertius (half a third, two and a half), a silver coin worth two and a half pounds of copper. Sestertius was designated by the letters "LLS" or "IIS", sometimes "HS". This abbreviation stands for: “Libra-Libra-Semis”, that is: “Pound-Pound-Half”. When writing in abbreviation, two letters “L” with a truncated lower transverse line were superimposed on the letter “S” and it looked like a dollar sign. This is exactly how the monetary unit of sestertius was designated in writing in Ancient Rome. The ancient Roman theme was very fashionable during the Age of Enlightenment. For example, the seat of the US Congress is called the Capitol (the main hill in Rome), and the upper house of the US Congress is called the Senate - the same as in Ancient Rome.

The religious version explains the origin of the sign from the modified reverse of the Austrian thaler with the image of the crucified Jesus and a snake entwining the cross. The Masonic version, close to fans of conspiracy theories and secret societies, says: the symbol “$” is the designation of the Temple of King Solomon (the initial letter of “Solomon” and two columns).

But the truth may be much more trivial and literally under our noses: the dollar sign could be derived from... the shilling, which is denoted by the letter "S", which is sometimes "reinforced" by a vertical bar.

As for the international order of writing a dollar sign in front of a monetary amount, this is a tradition that the Americans inherited from the British - the latter always put the pound sign immediately before the number.

sources

http://origin.iknowit.ru/paper1238.html

http://www.factroom.ru/world/dollar-sign

http://ria.ru/spravka/20080401/102641988.html

http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%A1%D0%B8%D0%BC%D0...%D0%BB%D0%BB%D0%B0%D1%80%D0%B0

taken