Culture and Society
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The dollar sign may be one of the most recognized symbols in the world. More than a denotation of currency, it’s become a potent emblem of wealth, capitalism, and (in some imaginations) either freedom or greed. Its origins, however, are not so clear.
The rest of this article is behind a paywall. Please sign in or subscribe to access the full content.One of the most common misconceptions is that the symbol stands for the US, as in the United States, with the letter S being overlaid by the two vertical lines of the U. This erroneous idea was given a huge bump of publicity by the writer and evangelist of free markets Ayn Rand in her 1957 novel Atlas Shrugged.
“The dollar sign? For a great deal. It stands on the vest of every fat, piglike figure in every cartoon, for the purpose of denoting a crook, a grafter, a scoundrel—as the one sure-fire brand of evil. It stands—as the money of a free country—for achievement, for success, for ability, for man’s creative power—and, precisely for these reasons, it is used as a brand of infamy,” Rand writes.
“Incidentally, do you know where that sign comes from? It stands for the initials of the United States,” she declares.
Like many nice ideas, it’s not true. Until its founding in 1776, the region was known as the United Colonies of North America and some suggest the dollar sign had already been in use before it became simply known as the United States.
There’s a similar theory that the dollar sign was formed out of the initials US, not to denote the United States, but meaning “unit of silver.” However, this is also presumed to be another false etymology.
Another older theory is that the $ symbol may have been inspired by the pillars of Hercules: the S-shape is a scroll or ribbon wrapped around two vertical lines that represent the pillars. Not many scholars seem to buy this idea today, though.
According to the Federal Reserve Board, the central banking system of the US, the US officially adopted the dollar sign in 1785. They state that the dollar symbol is derived from the Spanish peso, which was commonly used in the region before the dollar gained supremacy.
Forget the British pound. Before the dollar was established, the Spanish peso was widely circulated in the Americas, even in the British colonies, thanks to its stability and high silver content.
Pesos were commonly written in shorthand as Ps, which then became amalgamated into the symbol where the P and S overlapped into one form. Eventually, the curve of the P evolved into just straight vertical lines, forming the $ we all know today.
An alternative version of the story is that the $ symbol actually evolved from the number 8. The peso was called a "piece of eight" because it was worth eight reales, a smaller denomination of Spanish currency. The symbol for the dollar might have originally involved the number 8, perhaps two 8s stacked on top of each other, which evolved into a $ shape.
Truth be told, there is no categorical evidence that backs up any of these theories. Certainly, the $ symbol was not actively developed by a team of graphic designers following a planned brief.
On the contrary, it evolved organically over time, taking shape after being scrawled countless times across receipts and bank documents, often with errors and slight variations. After countless repetitions, this tangle of symbols gradually solidified into its modern form. Just as the messy evolution of an organism can be difficult to trace, the origins of symbols and signs can be murky.
