The letter S appears nowhere in the word “dollar”, yet an S with a line through it ($) is unmistakably the dollar sign. But why an S? Why isn’t the dollar sign something like a Ä (like the former South Vietnamese dong, or the totally-not-a-joke-currency Dogecoin)?
There’s a good story behind it, but here’s a big hint: the dollar sign isn’t a dollar sign.
Fascinating little bit of history. Us Dutch used the ‘rijksdaalder‘ (where the suffix ‘-daalder’ is the Dutch transliteration of the same word ‘dollar’ comes from) from the late 16th century all the way up until 2002, when we moved to the euro.
Interesting story.
Also interesting that they used “gulden” (means “golden”) for a coin that was made from silver. Later, in Holland, the newer gulden would also be just a name, while the material was much cheaper (even no silver).
PS: I want my Dutch gulden back. A rijksdaalder is also ok. Or bitcoin.
The Greeks have them now. It’s too late.
Also see “sterling”, as in “pounds sterling” or “£”, which is an elaborate “L”, which was the Roman symbol for a pound in weight. A quid used to be guaranteed by the Bank of England to be worth a pound of sterling silver.
There’s a shop near me which sells sandwiches for £1 and they’ve stupidly called their shop £andwiches. Every time I walk past I want to shout “Land Witches!”
How was an extra “d” get inserted in “daalDer”?
Its not for sure that this is the origin… in fact it is rather debatable though this theory is the most widely accepted.
The other one that I personally prefer is the double stroke dollar sign. Supposedly originating as a monogram of U and S. Which became less used with the advent of computers and limited resolution of fonts (thats what I’m going with anyway
). I am almost certain I have seen people especially older people using the double stroke dollar sign in writing here NC, USA.
Also, this is wildly off topic for OSnews lol.
This is the theory I’ve heard also.
And I agree about the low-resolution computer screens/printers (and good old laziness) being responsible for the loss of the second vertical stroke.
I also remember double lines through the $ in my youth.
Lest my memory be in error, I just checked the boxes from my dad’s estate. The first instance of $ I found was on a check from Mississippi dated October 7, 1955 – and the $ pre-printed on the check for the amount clearly has 2 vertical lines.
I don’t know how to reconcile that to the peso story. Perhaps Americans just added a second vertical line because it looks cooler. *shrugs*
Interesting write up, though.
The double striked dollar, was also used in Portugal and portuguese speaking countries as the currency sign so i have strong doubts about that US focused origin though…
Appears to be the case, though the origins are vague https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cifrão
http://www.casadamoeda.gov.br/portalCMB/menu/cmb/sobreCMB/origem-ci…
you’ll have to use google translate but the way that link tells the story, it’s design is related to gibraltar strait and an arabian general. An additional origin is also related to the spanish peso and the graphism of the spanish coat of arms pressed on the coins.
Not an expert on numismatic at all, and all or none of those stories may be right, i just strongly doubt the US origin of the symbol.
I kind of doubt it will stay offtopic in a way.
Those silly Internet-hacker/cryptopunk people are really busy reinventing currency, money, trading and banking for the Internet.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wq8yOMl8IUs
My feeling is this is going to create a lot of change in the world. Especially for the ‘unbanked’. Just look at what happend with M-Pesa: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M-Pesa
It was launched in 2007 and now it’s more than 40 percent of Kenya GDP:
http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Making-a-difference/Change-Agent/201…
Bitcoin isn’t an bound by the Internet. As I understand it, you can already send Bitcoin just using SMS.
Edited 2015-02-09 16:14 UTC
” Etymologically, “Thaler” is an abbreviation of “Joachimsthaler”, a coin type from the city of Joachimsthal (Jáchymov) in Bohemia, where some of the first such coins were minted in 1518. (Thal is German for “valley”. A “thaler” is a person or a thing “from the valley”. ”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thaler
Edited 2015-02-09 02:00 UTC
No “thaler” is a weight measurement in Germanic language areas for iron used since early antiquity. Written monastical sources exists to back this up from before the 6th century AD, but third party accounts of the measurement can also be found in the roman empire taxation records of the Germanic border areas around the Rhine as old as 20CE.
The way I heard it, it’s a capital U superimposed on a capital S, as in US, which is why it’s sometimes rendered with two vertical bars. It’s not a peso symbol nor a Lyra, nor a ruble, nor a drachma. It’s a US as in US Dollar. Fun story though. Too bad that like most interwebtubes stories, it’s total BS.
In Denmark and probably other Nordic countries a daler is a two crown (a coin with the value of two one crowns), an archaic term only recreated in the 1990s when two crowns came back into circulation. So why is it a two crown?
No, not a retorical question. Anybody know?
I think this has to do with the exchange rate when the Scandinavian countries entered the monetary union in 1873. The rate was set to 1 krona/krone = 1 Swedish riksdaler = ½ Danish rigsdaler. So it makes sense to me that the Danes would call the 2 kroner coin a daler. It also helps explain why the name riksdaler still sticks around as a nickname for the krona in Sweden.
Incidentally the Swedish 2 kronor coin, which ceased production in 1971, will be reintroduced in 2016.
According to Wikipedia the 25 öre coin was often referred to as the 12 skilling. (1 riksdaler = 48 skilling.) I’ve never heard this myself – the 5 and 25 öre coins disappeared from circulation when I was 2 years old though.
I wonder how common it is with newer currencies being expressed in terms of older ones even several generations after they ceased being used.
Interesting. I was taught back in school that the two-stroked version of the dollar sign was based on the Pillars of Heracles/Hercules.
Sweden used the riksdaler between 1777 and 1873. The three Scandinavian countries then formed a monetary union and switched to a new currency called the krona/krone. One krona/krone is divided into 100 öre/øre (from latin aureus “gold”) While the union didn’t last very long the krona/krone survived to this day. In Sweden riksdaler can still be used as a nickname for the krona.
florijn is also used for the dutch gulden (guilder) abbreviated as fl. alt-195 or alt-0131 on a pc “& #131;” in html or option-F Æ’ on osx
Edited 2015-02-12 11:51 UTC