Quote:
Originally Posted by poohbear_nc
Well - SneakySnake got the right symbol - in its original form.
Bilbo got the right modern symbol - yes it became the modern dollar sign - anyone old enough to remember when it was still written with 2 vertical lines?
One theory on its adoption by the US is that Spanish pieces of eight were widely circulated in North America, and had the pillars of Hercules on one side of the coin. This symbol became recognizable as representing money.
So ... SS or Bilbo ... whoever gets here first ... take it away with a new question!
|
... You mean it's not written with 2 vertical lines anymore?
(I'm not being sarcastic, I always write it with 2 lines and wasn't aware that this wasn't done anymore. And I'm - just barely - under 30, so it can't be that long ago that the 2 lines stopped being written, eh?)
In university (in a Latin lit. course) we were taught that the dollar sign came from the roman sestertius.