How did the $ sign for the allmighty dollor start and How did it start?

Question

Is it when they started trading currency or the time before that?

Answer 1

The Spanish Real or Piece of Eight had a design on the back of it where the $ sign comes from. Check the link I provided for a picture. You can see for yourself.

Answer 2

I went to the experts, the folks at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing. Here is their reply: "The origin of the $ sign has been variously accounted for. Perhaps the most widely accepted explanation is that it is the result of the evolution of the Mexican or Spanish P's for pesos, or piastres, or pieces of eight. This theory, derived from a study of old manuscripts, explains that the S gradually came to be written over the P, developing a close equivalent to the $ mark. It was widely used before the adoption of the United States dollar in 1785."

Answer 3

[edit] History
The sign is attested in business correspondence between British North America and Mexico in the 1770s as referring to the Spanish-Mexican peso. 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, though it is widely accepted that it comes from the Spanish coat of arms which carries the two Pillars of Hercules and the motto Non Plus Ultra in the shape of an "S".


[edit] From the Spanish Coat of Arms engraved on the Spanish 'Real' or Peso

The Pillars of Hercules around the modern coat of arms of Spain.The most widely accepted explanation is that the dollar sign derives from the Spanish coat of arms engraved on the Spanish colonial silver coins "Real de a Ocho" ("piece of eight") or Spanish dollar under circulation in the Spanish colonies of America and Asia, as well as in the English Thirteen Colonies and later the US and Canada.

The Spanish coat of arms has two columns (||) which represent the Pillars of Hercules and an "S"-shapped ribbon around each, with the motto "Non Plus Ultra" originally, and later "Plus Ultra". (This theory is in most Spanish and Latinamerican history books. It is also in a Danish book about the $ sign[citation needed].

In 1492 King Ferdinand II of Aragon 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 Non plus ultra – meaning "and nothing further", indicating "[this is] the end of the (known) world". But as Christopher Columbus later in 1492 travelled to 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. When the Spanish conquistadores found gold and silver in the New World, Charles V's symbol was stamped on the coins made from these metals. 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.

There is also another explanation in the United States according to the U.S. Bureau of Engraving and Printing here, where "$" is a corruption of the letters "PS" or "PS" (for 'peso', as each letter could represent each syllable of "Pe-So") written over each other in Spanish. Eventually, the 'P' was reduced to a vertical line.

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.

Answer 4

The dollar sign started with two vertical bars, not one. Superimpose a "U" on an "S" (or an "S" on a "U") to combine the initials of United States. Now cut off the bottom loop on the "U". What is left is the dollar sign.