Article

2010-09-26 -Short Attention Span Theater-

Theory on the origins of the various dollar symbols "$"

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Posted by gorb 2010-09-26 13:03|| || Front Page|| [3 views ] Top

#1 I was always taught that the $ was done with two strokes, not one. The cent symbol was done with one stroke. Â¢ like that.

Posted by crosspatch 2010-09-26 15:57|| 2010-09-26 15:57|| Front Page Top

#2 Ditto #1, Maybe this is a history rewrite.

Posted by Dale 2010-09-26 16:15|| 2010-09-26 16:15|| Front Page Top

#3 When I was young and believed in such things, the "$" was in memory of the snaked-staff of the Celts who were driven from Ireland by the great warrior/christian Patrick in return for a sainthood.

Another similar mythical reference is the Rod of Asclepius, a son of Apollo and a great healer.

...and the torah has Moses leading something of a snake cult for which he mounted a bronze snake on a staff. By gazing upon it, the followers of Moses were healed of snakebite.

Sorry. A slow Sunday.

Posted by Skidmark 2010-09-26 16:49|| 2010-09-26 16:49|| Front Page Top

#4 I think the pieces of eight origin is most likely, since we know that influenced other ways we talk about money.

(Why is a quarter "two bits"? Because two pieces of a piece-of-eight is a quarter of the whole.)

Posted by Rob Crawford 2010-09-26 19:08|| 2010-09-26 19:08|| Front Page Top

#5 Take a U and overlay it on an S and you have something very like the two-stroke version of the $.

*shrug*

Posted by eLarson 2010-09-26 20:19|| 2010-09-26 20:19|| Front Page Top

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