the Lost story of how US money is referred to as " $ "

reply to post by Lazarus Short


actually the two columns are representative of the pillars of Hercules.

I wonder if that is where we get the two lines from?

Originally posted by BIHOTZ
reply to post by Lazarus Short

 

actually the two columns are representative of the pillars of Hercules.

I wonder if that is where we get the two lines from?

thanks for adding..

That was covered.. but i think it comes from King Solomon ..rastafari.unn13.com...

I brought this up with my uncle, who had been a accountant and something of a history buff for most of his life and he had an interesting take on the whole thing.

He said that, back when ledgers were written by hand, it was common to finish a line with a bit of a flourish not just so that it looked neat, but so that any addition to the line would be easily noticed. This was sort of an early anti-theft device. Thus, When an accountant would write out the amount of something, it would be something like one-hundred dollars with another line listing the cents, as in forty cents. It was also common to abbreviate cents as c with a slash through it as saying it was a fraction of a hundred or a centum. Most likely, the $ was meant as a flourish at the end of dollars and eventually devolved into just the $ symbol. The two slashes would have been a means of telling that the slash was intentional instead of accidental.

May not be the actual origins, but an interesting take on the whole thing.

reply to post by soontide


Soontide!!


LOVED that!!

another Thought provoker!!

the Cents,, reason,, truly makes Sense !!

just mind boggling.. isn't it??


$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

Originally posted by Lazarus Short

BTW, I did know that Sears used to sells cars from their catalog. I have a reprint.

Another thing has become lost in just a few hundred years: the origin of "America." Forget that Italian map-maker - I know who America is really named after.

edit on 10-5-2012 by Lazarus Short because: lah-de-dah

The Allstate was the car sold by Sears, it was a rebadged Kaiser Henry J

The Italian Cartographer that you refer to was Amerigo Vespucci

reply to post by dave_welch


love this topic


need to do the Work to find a real answer

Excellent thread

I love this type of stuff. Forgotten Americana and odd things which fade into obscurity.

All the answers seem very plausible, although I am more likely to go with the interlocking US, simplified to $. Occam's razor and all.


Now, if someone (without using Google) can tell me who the hell Betsy is, and why she's referred to when people say "HEAVENS TO BETSY!"; I would be much appreciative.
Was Betsy Ross divinely inspired to sew the flag or something? I have always found this phrase to be strange.