Read the text about the dollar sign origin.
The dollar, the standard unit of money in the United States, Canada, Mexico and several other countries, has an interesting story, and so has the $ generally used to represent it. The word ‘dollar’ comes from German for Thaler, which is an abbreviation of Joachimsthaler. Joachimsthal (Joachim’s dale) is a little town in Bohemia near which, in the beginning of the 16th century, a rich silver mine was discovered. The feudal lords of the town had coins made that, because of their excellence, were soon used all over the Europe. These and similar coins were called Joachimsthalers, or simply Thalers. Coins of similar value were issued in Spain. They were called ‘pieces of eight’, because their value was divided into eight small coins. All these coins circulated freely in the colonies in both North and South America. In North America they were called ‘dollars’. When the United States had been formed, the word ‘dollar’ was adopted for its unit of coinage, but the sign for the new coin was that of the old Spanish pieces of eight. This sign showed a scroll, with the words Plus Ultra, waving between the Pillars of Hercules, the gateway between the Mediterranean and Atlantic. Thus the dollar sign has nothing to do with the letter S, nor was it, as some people believe, originally formed by placing a narrow U over an S to form the monogram of the United States.
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