Why the sign of the dollar is ($)?

Answer 1

Americas first money was Spanish minted in Mexico so they combined the P and S in peso and used that symbol when trading with the British.

Answer 2

The sign is attested in business correspondence between British North America and Mexico in the 1770s as referring to the Spanish-Mexican piastre. The piastre was known as "Spanish dollar" in British North America, and in 1785, it was adopted as U.S. currency, together with both the term "dollar" and the $ sign.

The sign's ultimate origins are not certain. The most widely accepted explanation, according to the U.S. Bureau of Engraving and Printing, is that "$" is a corruption of the letters "PS" or "Ps" (for 'peso' or 'piastre' - especially the former, as each letter could represent each syllable of "Pé-So") written over each other in Spanish. Eventually, the 'P' was reduced to a vertical line.

Another possibility is that it derives from the British notation 8/ for eight shilling, referring to the Spanish 8 reales coin ("piece of eight"), which later became the USA dollar. Others derive it from the Portuguese Cifrão sign .

Earliest usage wrote the sign with a single vertical stroke. For some time, the double-stroke symbol was common, but is now again falling out of use.


There are several other theories, but it seems no one reayy knows. For more, search for $ on WikipediA.

Answer 3

The 2 lines thru the S symbolize the U
$= United States.

Answer 4

Nobody really knows. The story of the overlapping "U" and "S" doesn't explain why Canada, Australia, and Hong Kong use the same symbol. Several other hypotheses are outlined at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%24#History .

Answer 5

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%24#History

Answer 6

would you rather have it look like this<.