OCR Text |
Show The Dollar TMark. Writers are not: agreed as to the derivation der-ivation of the sin to represent the word "dollar" or "dollars." Some contend con-tend that it comes from tho letters U and S, which, af ter tho adoption of the federal constitution, were prefixed to the currency of the new United States, and which afterward, in tho hurry of writing, were rim into each other, the U being made first and the 8 over it. Others say that the contraction is from the Spanish pesos, dollars; others, still, claim it to be derived from the Spanish word fuertes, me.ining hard, so culled to designate silver and gold from paper or soft money. Tile Mure plausiUu explanation ex-planation of the puzzle is this: That it is a moilitieufcon of the figure 8, and that the character, as we make it, denotes that we aro speyking or writing of a! sum i f money eijnul to eight real.-; or, j u s the dollar was formerly called, a piece of eight Kt. Louis Republic. |