dollar-sign transformed from 2-lines to 1-line ?

I remember when a 2-stroke dollar sign was seen in print. I myself
haven't seen one recently.

I remember reading long ago, in a fiat-money-is-unconstitutional tract,
that the change first occurred when (hope I'm remembering this
correctly!) when the US Army ceased paying in silver specie.... the
tract claimed that the only statutory definition of a "dollar" is the
one from 1790-something, defining a dollar as a certain number of
grains of fine silver. Because they knew that they were no longer
actually paying in legal dollars, they changed the symbol.

Anyone know anything further about this?

On 31 May 2005 04:08:29 -0700, wrote:

I remember when a 2-stroke dollar sign was seen in print. I myself
haven't seen one recently.

I remember reading long ago, in a fiat-money-is-unconstitutional tract,
that the change first occurred when (hope I'm remembering this
correctly!) when the US Army ceased paying in silver specie.... the
tract claimed that the only statutory definition of a "dollar" is the
one from 1790-something, defining a dollar as a certain number of
grains of fine silver. Because they knew that they were no longer
actually paying in legal dollars, they changed the symbol.

Anyone know anything further about this?

Um. You don't watch tv or read newspapers, right? Both varieties of
dollar sign are seen in the media. If you search in google for "dollar
sign" and click on _images_, you'll get the idea!

Padraic.

la cieurgeourea provoer mal trasfu
ast meiyoer ke 'l andrext ben trasfu.

Padraic Brown wrote:

On 31 May 2005 04:08:29 -0700, wrote:

I remember when a 2-stroke dollar sign was seen in print. I myself
haven't seen one recently.

I remember reading long ago, in a fiat-money-is-unconstitutional tract,
that the change first occurred when (hope I'm remembering this
correctly!) when the US Army ceased paying in silver specie.... the
tract claimed that the only statutory definition of a "dollar" is the
one from 1790-something, defining a dollar as a certain number of
grains of fine silver. Because they knew that they were no longer
actually paying in legal dollars, they changed the symbol.

Anyone know anything further about this?

Um. You don't watch tv or read newspapers, right? Both varieties of
dollar sign are seen in the media. If you search in google for "dollar
sign" and click on _images_, you'll get the idea!

Padraic.

I may be wrong but I was once informed that the original symbol for the
dollar was actually the letters U and S (as in USA) superimposed on each
other ... hence the two vertical lines that originally included the
bottom part of the U. This was the (then) new dollar currency of the
Americans.

Over time this symbol was simplified to the single line version --
especially with typewriters and word processors/computers.

AFAIK both the single and double line versions are equally valid (and
equally used) symbols for the currency.

FWIW.


- Sheldon

On Wed, 01 Jun 2005 19:03:52 GMT, Sheldon England
wrote:

Padraic Brown wrote:

On 31 May 2005 04:08:29 -0700, wrote:

I remember when a 2-stroke dollar sign was seen in print. I myself
haven't seen one recently.

I remember reading long ago, in a fiat-money-is-unconstitutional tract,
that the change first occurred when (hope I'm remembering this
correctly!) when the US Army ceased paying in silver specie.... the
tract claimed that the only statutory definition of a "dollar" is the
one from 1790-something, defining a dollar as a certain number of
grains of fine silver. Because they knew that they were no longer
actually paying in legal dollars, they changed the symbol.

Anyone know anything further about this?

Um. You don't watch tv or read newspapers, right? Both varieties of
dollar sign are seen in the media. If you search in google for "dollar
sign" and click on _images_, you'll get the idea!

Padraic.

I may be wrong but I was once informed that the original symbol for the
dollar was actually the letters U and S (as in USA) superimposed on each
other ... hence the two vertical lines that originally included the
bottom part of the U. This was the (then) new dollar currency of the
Americans.

I think that's one of the explanatory myths, yes.

I do think we used a superimposed US on our military jacket buttons,
if that helps any.

Over time this symbol was simplified to the single line version --
especially with typewriters and word processors/computers.

I think the $ predates the US$ by a bit.

AFAIK both the single and double line versions are equally valid (and
equally used) symbols for the currency.

I think that is so as well. In the US at least, there is no difference
between single and double stroke dollar signs. Other countries also
use the $ sign -- usage in those places may vary!

Padraic.

- Sheldon

la cieurgeourea provoer mal trasfu
ast meiyoer ke 'l andrext ben trasfu.

The dollar sign evolved rather quickly from a ligature for Pesos: Ps.
This apparently was known in the Florida panhandle and New Orleans, but
was also known in the Atlantic ports of the north, also.

The main reference for numismatists (other historians have traced this,
also) is this from the ANS Library online catalog

Main Author: Newman, Eric P.
Title: The dollar sign : its written and printed origin / by Eric P.
Newman.
Subject Info: Dollar sign. United States Dollar. United States Paper
money.
In: Kleeberg, John M., ed. Coinage of the Americas Conference.
Proceedings No. 9. America's silver dollars New York: American
Numismatic Society,c1995 p. 1-49 pp. 5-16 Vol. 70, No. 2 (Feb. 1957),
pp. 137-147
Year: 1995

Newman credits the mathematician, Florian Cajori, with a thorough
investigation of the evolution of this symbol from the late 1500s to
the late 1700s.

(Regarding the first post in this thread, I learned the same argument
from the same sources. The dollar sign with two lines indicates the
lawful money of the Constitution. The dollar sign with one line
indicates something else. As Padraic Brown notes, in our world today,
such distinction is totally lost. No one gets paid in silver dollars,
so it does not make much difference. See also, the same variations in
the typography of the symbols for the Mexican peso and the old
Portuguese escudo.)