Where Does the $ Sign Come From? - Big Questions (Ep.5)

Hi, I'm Craig. I have a tattoo of a dollar sign on my knee, so I can call it my money knee

And this is Mentle Floss on YouTube. Today I'm going to answer Verunda Brawl's big question, where does the dollar sign come from

I have to start by saying that, unfortunately, we don't know where the dollar sign came from

But today I'm going to tell you the most popular and widely accepted theory. Let's get started

Cha-chang! This theory comes from mathematician Florian Kajori, who put up

published his findings in the 1928 book, a history of mathematical notations, which I'm sure is some great light reading

In order to properly explain Cajor's research, I'm also going to give you a little history of where the US dollar came from

As you probably know, the US Constitution gave Congress the right to coin money

So in the late 1700s, the US began coining its own dollars based on the Spanish dollar

and they were coins. Paper dollars didn't exist until 1861, because instead of making it rain, they had to make it hail, and that was dangerous

The Spanish dollar, also known as the peso, had already been around since the mid-1500s

Fun fact, peso is Spanish for weight. But the US colonists got their word dollar

from the European currency called thaller. Anyway, Spanish Americans began abbreviating peso

in various ways in the 16th century. One popular abbreviation, P.S evolved into the letters P&S

getting kind of squished together into a new symbol. The symbol changed to the dollar sign that we know today According to Cajori that probably just because it easier to write it without the extra loop So in addition to borrowing the Spanish dollar people from the U probably borrowed the abbreviation from the Spanish

Or to abbreviate the Spanicans. So when did all of this happen? Well, Cajori had a pretty good idea thanks to the diary of a member of the New York Provincial Assembly in the 1770s

In the diary from June 10, 1776, through August 20th, the word dollar is spelled out

But on August 21st, 1776, he uses the dollar symbol for the first time

Of course, it's not like everyone started using the dollar sign on August 21st of 1776

but that shows a good time frame for when the symbol was becoming more common. And by the 1800s, the dollar sign was pretty standard

I even use it today. It's a good theory of where the dollar sign originated, but there are plenty more like it

Some believe that the sign came from the letters U and S, as in United States

That makes sense, considering the dollar sign looks like a U on top of an S minus the bottom of the U

Does that make sense? I don't even. believe that it's a UN and S, but that it stands for a unit of silver rather than United

States. Another theory is that the sign comes from a slash through an eight, because peso is known

as peso de Ocho, or piece of eight. All of these theories are valid, and so is my theory that

the dollar sign was designed based on a snake going down a fireman's pole. If you have a big question

that you'd like answered, leave it below in the comments. Thanks for watching Mental Floss on YouTube

Looking forward to spending time with you next week