Friday, July 16, 2010

Ever Wonder Where the Dollar Sign Comes From?















$ - It's ubiquitous and instantly recognizable as the symbol for a dollar, usually associated with American currency. In light of India's recent approval of a new symbol for the rupee, Slate posted a short piece on where currency symbols come from. Pretty interesting stuff.

Coolest data points I found:
  • The US dollar likely comes from an abbreviation of Spanish pesos
  • The Israeli New  Shekel symbol crosses the first letter of each word in Hebrew (shekel chadash or )
  • The British pound comes from the Latin for scales, or Libra

Check out the Slate article HERE.

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