Dollar sign
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
The origin of the dollar sign ("$") has been variously accounted for. Perhaps the most widely accepted explanation, according to the U.S. Bureau of Engraving and Printing, is that it is the result of the evolution of the Mexican or Spanish "Ps" for pesos, or piastres, or pieces of eight (there is also a separate theory that the dollar sign derives from the number 8). This theory, derived from a study of old manuscripts, explains that the floating "S" gradually came to be written over the "P", developing a close equivalent at the top to a distinct "$" mark. Subsequently, a single vertical stroke in place of the "P" became all that was necessary in written form. The symbol was widely used before the adoption of the United States dollar in 1785.
Currency bags issued by the United States Mint were marked with a similar sign of superimposed letters. The letters U and S superimposed resemble the historical double stroke "$" sign. This double stroke dollar sign has been used to refer to US Currency.
Another possible origin (as found in a Danish book about this sign) is the Pillars of Hercules. When King Ferdinand in 1492 finally was able to put Gibraltar under the new joined rule of the Spanish throne, he adopted the symbol of the Pillars of Hercules and added the Latin phrase Nec plus ultra – indicating the end of the (known) world. But as Christopher Columbus later the same year discovered The Americas, the saying was changed to Plus Ultra – as there was more out there.
This symbol was especially adopted by Charles V and was a part of his coat of arms as a symbol of his American possessions and riches. And when the Spanish conquistadors found gold and silver in the New World, Charles V's symbol was stamped on the coins made from this. These coins with the Pillars of Hercules over two hemispheres (columnarios) were spread around America and Europe, and the symbol was ultimately adopted by the country that became the United States and by many of the continent's other independent nations.
Later on, salesmen wrote signs that, instead of saying dollar, had this handwritten symbol, and in turn this developed to the simple S with two vertical bars.
The dollar symbol is the only currency mark defined in the 7-bit ASCII computer character set. Other character sets contain other currency signs in addition to the dollar.
The dollar sign was used to define string variables in older versions of the BASIC programming language ("$" is pronounced "string" in BBC BASIC). It is also used to define variables in the Perl and PHP programming languages, and in most Shell scripting languages.
Currencies that use the dollar sign
In addition to those countries of the world that use dollars, a number of other countries use the symbol to denote their currencies, including:
- Argentine peso
- Brazilian real
- Bolivian boliviano
- Cape Verde escudo
- Chilean peso
- Colombian peso
- Cuban peso
- Dominican peso
- Mexican peso
- Portuguese escudo (defunct)
- Uruguayan peso
References
Cajori, Florian (1993). A History of Mathematical Notations, New York: Dover (reprint). ISBN 0486677664 - contains section on the history of the dollar sign, with much documentary evidence supporting the "pesos" theory.
