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From: "::darkshadows::" <blood@thirsty.net>
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Subject: Where did the dollar sign come from?
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Date: Sun, 22 Jun 2008 04:02:31 GMT
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Where did the dollar sign come from?
It is only appropriate that an Irish immigrant to the United States be
the one credited with originating the dollar sign. Oliver Pollock
sailed the high seas at the age of twenty-three, and settled in
Carlisle, Pennsylvania. This young entrepreneur rapidly established
himself as a wealthy and influential West Indies trader.
Pollock moved his operation to Louisiana, where he amassed even more
wealth as a trader, and as a plantation owner. His success enabled him
and to maintain close contact and a degree of influence with Congress.
support "the cause," as the Spanish Empire had an outpost in New
Orleans, Louisiana. In his dealings with the Spaniards, Pollock used
their currency, the peso.
In true Spanish tradition, Pollock used an abbreviation for pesos, yet
his penmanship made the abbreviation appear to be the transposition of
the letters "p" and "s."
Prior to 1775, the fledgling nations monetary system was in disarray,
and needed to be revamped. By 1775, Congress decided to rectify the
situation by backing all of its legal tender with the most commonly
circulated coins that were, coincidentally, Spanish coins minted in
the New World. Americans then began trading with "Spanish milled
dollars," later termed "dollars," as Americans shed the "pounds" that
were the vestiges of British rule.
Congressman Robert Morris, to whom Pollock addressed his billing
records, perpetuated the use of the dollar sign, and was the first
high government official to give his blessing to the "s" with the two
lines through it.
The appearance of the dollar sign in print, in a 1797 book by Chauncey
Lee, signified the acceptance of the dollar as a purely American
symbol, much as is the bald eagle. And, no, the dollar sign formed by
placing the letter "U" over the letter "S" is not an abbreviation for
Uncle Sam, as some have suggested!
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