The Origin of the Dollar Sign ($)

The quote of the week comes from Chapter 20 in the book Atlas Shrugged title "The Sign of The Dollar". This stuck out to me while I was reading it and thought it was interesting enough that I had to do a little research about the origin of the dollar sign and what it stands for. What I came across is since the symbol is more recent than the name, and the origins of the latter are well understood, one might expect that the origins of the sign would also be known for certain particularly when the origin of the British pound sign, £, which is far older, is well-established. However that is not the case with regard to the dollar. There seem to be a few theories of the origin's of the $ sign. I like the theory that Ayn Rand uses in Atlas Shrugged even though sounds like the symbol was already in use before the formation of the United States.

Dagny sees "the sign of the dollar" imprinted on Kellogg's box of cigarettes--costing five cents in a pure gold standard. She asks what the dollar sign stands for and Kellogg's answer is:

The following is an excerpts from Atlas Shrugged, © Copyright, 1957, by Ayn Rand.

"The dollar sign? For agreat deal. It stands on the vest of every fat, piglike figure in every cartoon, for the purpose of denoting a crook, a grafter, a scoundrel—as the one sure-fire brand of evil."

He goes on to say

"It stands—as the money of a free country—for achievement, for success, for ability, for man's creative power—and precisely for these reasons, it is used as a brand of infamy. It stands for the initials of the United States."

"Do you know that the United States is the only country in history that has ever used its own monogram as a symbol of depravity? Ask yourself why. Ask yourself how long a country that did that could hope to exist, and whose moral standards have destroyed it. It was the only country in history where wealth was not acquired by looting, but by production, not by force, but by trade, the only country whose money was the symbol of man's right to his own mind, to his work, to his life, to his happiness, to himself."

I am in total agreement with Rand on everything except I have to say that some wealth was acquired by force in the days of slavery, but will let Walter Williams talk about this one. I do feel it stands for achievement, for success, for ability, for man's creative power, along with the symbol of man's right to his own mind, to his work, to his life, to his happiness, to himself.  I also feel that the media/hollywood uses it as a symbol of depravity.

If you would like to find out more on the origins of the dollar sign check out the wiki page.

If you liked this, read older post of Quote of the Week

What theory do you think? Leave a comment