Richfield Reaper | 1931-09-17 | Page 6 | Explaining Origin of American Dollar Sign

explaining origin of american dollar sign in des temps nou vea veaux charles prince explains for french readers the origin of the american dollar sign he relates that spain in the fifteenth century when practically all the worlds gold was carried to the iberian peninsula from tho the mines of south america designed a coin of eight reals value which bore on one of its faces tc a representation of two columns the columns of hercules intertwined by a in the form of a letter S bearing the inscription plus ultra englishmen called these coins pillar dollars taking the word dollar from the german coin known as ag a thaler when the united states congress in 1787 decided to strike a coin known as a dollar with the same value as the spanish pillar dollar accountants naturally used as the sign for this new coin the old device of pillars inte intertwined r with a garland which is so well known today in the form of an 8 with a double bar exchange Ec change