Dollar sign

{{Short description|Monetary symbol used in many national currencies}} {{Redirect|$|other uses|$ (disambiguation)|and|Dollar (disambiguation)}} {{Technical reasons|$#|articles whose titles should start with $#|$h*! My Dad Says{{!}}''$#*! My Dad Says''|and|Leet#History{{!}}$#!+|prefix=yes}} {{Technical reasons|:$|the emoticon|List of emoticons}} {{Use dmy dates|date=July 2022}} {{Infobox currency sign|mark=$ |unicode={{unichar|0024|Dollar sign|html=}} |other names= Peso sign |currency= Many (see dollar, peso) |see also= |image variants=Dollar sign fonts.svg }}

The '''dollar sign''', also known as the '''peso sign''', is a currency symbol consisting of a capital {{angbr|S}} crossed with one or two vertical strokes ({{char|$}} or {{char|{{dollar2}}}} depending on typeface), used to indicate the unit of various currencies around the world, including most currencies denominated "dollar" or "peso". The explicitly double-barred {{char|{{dollar2}}}} sign is called ''cifrão'' in the Portuguese language.

The sign is also used in several compound currency symbols, such as the Brazilian real (R$) and the United States dollar (US$): in local use, the nationality prefix is usually omitted. In countries that have other currency symbols, the US dollar is often assumed and the "US" prefix omitted.

The one- and two-stroke versions are often considered mere stylistic (typeface) variants, although in some places and epochs one of them may have been specifically assigned, by law or custom, to a specific currency. The Unicode computer encoding standard defines a single code for both.

In most English-speaking countries that use that symbol, it is placed to the left of the amount specified, e.g. "$1", read as "one dollar".

==History== ===Recent history=== The symbol appears in business correspondence in the 1770s from the West Indies referring to the Spanish American peso,<ref>{{cite magazine |title=Origin of dollar sign is traced to Mexico |date=February 1930 |magazine=Popular Science |issn=0161-7370 |page=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_4ykDAAAAMBAJ/page/n60/mode/1up?view=theater 59}}</ref> also known as "Spanish dollar" or "piece of eight" in British America. The Spanish coins provided the model for the currency that the United States adopted in 1792,<ref>{{cite journal |first=Lawrence |last=Kinnaird |date=July 1976 |title=The western fringe of revolution |journal=The Western Historical Quarterly |volume=7 |issue=3 |page=259 |doi=10.2307/967081 |jstor=967081 }}</ref> and for the larger coins of the new Spanish American republics, such as the Mexican peso, Argentine peso, Peruvian real, and Bolivian sol coins.

[[file:US-$1-LT-1869-Fr-18.jpg|thumb|right|{{anchor|US_1869_reverse_anchor}}Reverse side (lower) of $1 United States note, 1869 series ("greenback"), showing {{nobr|"US" ≈ '$'}} monogram.]] With the Coinage Act of 1792, the United States Congress created the U.S. dollar, defining it to have "the value of a Spanish milled dollar as the same is now current"<ref>{{cite report |section=Section 9 |title=The Coinage Act of 1792 |type=legislation |publisher=U.S. Library of Congress |place=Washington, DC |section-url=http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=llsl&fileName=001/llsl001.db&recNum=371 |via=memory.loc.gov |url-status=dead |access-date=January 27, 2026 |archive-date=29 July 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200729031805/http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=llsl&fileName=001%2Fllsl001.db&recNum=371 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=Meredith |first=Stephanie |date=6 April 2017 |title=Coinage Act of 2 April 1792 |orig-date=2 April 1792 |department=Historical document |page=3 |publisher=United States Mint |website=U.S. Mint (usmint.gov) |url=https://www.usmint.gov/learn/history/historical-documents/coinage-act-of-april-2-1792 |access-date=12 August 2024 }}</ref> but a variety of foreign coins were deemed to be legal tender until the Coinage Act of 1857 ended this status.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Martin |first=David A. |year=1977 |title=The changing role of foreign money in the United States, 1782-1857 |journal=The Journal of Economic History |volume=37 |issue=4 |pages=1009–1027 |doi=10.1017/S002205070009478X |jstor=2119352 |issn=0022-0507}}</ref>

The earliest U.S. dollar coins did not have any dollar symbol. The first occurrence in print is claimed to be from 1790s, by a Philadelphia printer Archibald Binny, creator of the Monticello typeface.<ref name=ander2019>{{cite news |first=Hephzibah |last=Anderson |date=29 May 2019 |title=The curious origins of the dollar symbol |website=BBC (bbc.com) |url=https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20190528-the-curious-origin-of-the-symbol |access-date=2021-08-12 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210812172054/https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20190528-the-curious-origin-of-the-symbol |archive-date=12 August 2021 }}</ref> The $1 United States Note issued by the United States in 1869 included a large symbol consisting of a 'U' with the right bar overlapping an 'S' like a single-bar dollar sign, as well as a very small double-stroke dollar sign in the legal warning against forgery ''see picture''.

===Earlier history of the symbol=== [[File:Potosi Real.jpg|thumb|right|A piece of eight from the Potosí mint, showing the Pillars of Hercules with 'S' ribbons, and two "PTSI" monograms at about 4 and 8 o'clock around the edge]] It is still uncertain, however, how the dollar sign came to represent the Spanish American peso. There are currently several competing hypotheses:

[[File:Columnas_Plus_Ultra.png|thumb|right|Iconic representation of the Pillars of Hercules with ribbon ''Plus Ultra'' ("further beyond"), in Seville (16th century).]] * The most widely accepted theory holds that among the very many latinate scribal abbreviations the dollar sign developed out of an abbreviation for the Spanish and Spanish-American {{char|ps}} for pesos. A study of late 18th- and early 19th-century manuscripts shows that the ''s'' gradually came to be written over the ''p'', developing into a close equivalent to the '$' mark.{{efn| "The foreign coins remained in circulation [in the United States], and the more important among them, especially the Spanish (including the Mexican) dollars, were declared by Congress on 9 February 1793, to be legal tender. The dollar sign, '$', is connected with the peso, contrary to popular belief, which considers it to be an abbreviation of 'U.S.' The two parallel lines represented one of the many abbreviations of 'P,' and the 'S' indicated the plural. The abbreviation '$.' was also used for the peso, and is still used {{nobr|in Argentina." — {{harvp|Nussbaum|1957|p=56}}<ref name=nuss1957/>}} }}<ref name="cajori1929">{{cite book |first=F. |last=Cajori |author-link=Florian Cajori |year=1993 |orig-year=1929 |title=A History of Mathematical Notations |volume=2 |pages=15–29 |publisher=Courier Corporation |isbn=978-0-4866-7766-8 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7juWmvQSTvwC&pg=RA1-PA22 |via=Google }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |first1=Arthur S. |last1=Aiton |first2=Benjamin W. |last2=Wheeler |date=May 1931 |title=The First American Mint |journal=The Hispanic American Historical Review |volume=11 |issue=2 |page=198 |jstor=2506275 |doi=10.1215/00182168-11.2.198 |doi-access=free }}</ref><ref name=nuss1957>{{cite book |last=Nussbaum |first=A. |author-link=Arthur Nussbaum |year=1957 |title=A History of the Dollar |publisher=Columbia University Press |location=New York, NY |page=[https://archive.org/details/historyofdollar0000nuss/page/56 56] |url=https://archive.org/details/historyofdollar0000nuss |via=Internet Archive |url-access=registration }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Riesco Terrero |first=Ángel |year=1983 |title=Diccionario de abreviaturas hispanas de los siglos XIII al XVIII: Con un apendice de expresiones y formulas juridico-diplomaticas de uso corriente |location=Salamanca, ES |publisher=Imprenta Varona |page=[https://archive.org/details/diccionariodeabr0000ries/page/350 350] |isbn=84-300-9090-8 |url=https://archive.org/details/diccionariodeabr0000ries/page/350 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=What is the origin of the $ sign? |department=FAQs |series=Resources |publisher=Bureau of Engraving and Printing |url=https://www.bep.gov/currency/faqs#:~:text=What%20is%20the%20origin%20of%20the%20$%20sign? |via=bep.gov |url-status=live |access-date=2025-12-29 |archive-date=23 April 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220423105434/https://www.bep.gov/currency/faqs#:~:text=What%20is%20the%20origin%20of%20the%20$%20sign? }}</ref> Oliver Pollock, a wealthy Irish trader and early supporter of the American Revolution, used the abbreviation "ps", sometimes run together in a way that almost exactly resembled the dollar sign, in a letter dated 1778.<ref name=ander2019/><ref>{{cite journal|last=Cajori|first=Florian|title=The Origin of the Dollar Mark|journal=The Numismatist|volume=42|issue=8|date=August 1929|pages=489-492|url=https://archive.org/details/Numismatist1929/page/489/mode/1up}}</ref><ref name=roth2018>{{cite web |first=Joshua D. |last=Rothman |date=1 April 2018 |title=The curious origins of the dollar sign |website=We're History (werehistory.org) |url=http://werehistory.org/the-curious-origins-of-the-dollar-sign/ |access-date=18 August 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210812185942/http://werehistory.org/the-curious-origins-of-the-dollar-sign/ |archive-date=12 August 2021 }}</ref> There are documents showing the common use of the two-stroke version in Portugal already by 1775.<ref name=beux1775/> * Another hypothesis derives the sign from a depiction of the Pillars of Hercules, a classical symbol for two sides of the Strait of Gibraltar, with a ribbon wrapped around each pillar (or both pillars) in the form of an 'S'. This device is a support element of the Spanish coat of arms, and appeared on the most common ''real de ocho'' coins circulating at the time in the Americas and Europe; namely, those minted at the Potosí mint in Bolivia, which operated from 1573–1825.<ref name=seij2017/><ref name=nuss1957/> Indeed, one of the names used for Spanish dollars in Qing Dynasty China was {{Lang-zh|labels=no|p=Shuāngzhù|s=|t=雙柱|l=double-pillar}}.<ref name=theo2016>{{cite web |first=Ulrich |last=Theobald |date=13 April 2016 |title=Qing period money: Foreign silver 'dollars' |website=ChinaKnowledge.de |url=http://www.chinaknowledge.de/History/Terms/cash-qing.html#silverdollars |access-date=18 August 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210409053321/http://www.chinaknowledge.de/History/Terms/cash-qing.html#silverdollars |archive-date=9 April 2021 }}</ref> thumb|The Pillars of Hercules wrapped by a cloth band, on an 18th-century Spanish coin. thumb|225px|alt=Dollar symbol evolution|Development of the dollar sign, according to two hypotheses. * A variant of the above theory claims that the sign comes from the mark of the mint at Potosí, where a large portion of the Spanish Empire's silver was mined. A feature on these coins were the {{nobr|letters "P T S I"}} superimposed. The core of this monogram is a (single-stroked) '$' sign.<ref name=chor2011>{{cite book |first1=Sandra |last1=Choron |first2=Harry |last2=Choron |year=2011 |title=Money: Everything you never knew about your favorite thing to find, save, spend, & covet |isbn=978-1-4521-0559-8 |page=68 |publisher=Chronicle Books |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YEdwW78QWj0C&pg=PA68 |via=Google |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230405174327/https://books.google.com/books?id=YEdwW78QWj0C&pg=PA68 |archive-date=5 April 2023 }}</ref> thumb|Dollar sign in letter from Sept. 12, 1778, by Oliver Pollock to George Roger Clark. thumb|Sample ledger with a sign for dollar from John Collins 1686 * Yet another hypothesis notes that the English word "dollar" for the Spanish piece of eight originally came (through Dutch ''daalder'') from ''Joachimsthaler'' or ''thaler'', a similar large German silver coin that was widely used in Europe. It is therefore conjectured that the dollar sign derived from a symbol consisting of a superimposing 'S' and 'I' or 'J' that was used to denote the German silver coin. {{harvp|de Roover|1945}} notes that such a symbol x17px used for that dollar unit appears in the {{nobr|1686 edition}} of ''An Introduction to Merchants' Accounts'' by John Collins printed at the end of Gerard de Malynes’ ''Lex Mercatoria''<ref>John Collins, [https://archive.org/details/bim_early-english-books-1641-1700_an-introduction-to-merch_collins-john_1653/page/n17/mode/1up ''An Introduction to Merchants' Accounts''], 1653 also uses the symbol.</ref> and was also used for the mark (Hamburg mark banco) in particular in the first half of the 19th century.<ref>{{cite journal |first=F.E. |last=de Roover |author-link=Florence Edler de Roover |date=April 1945 |title=Concerning the ancestry of the dollar sign |journal=Bulletin of the Business Historical Society |volume=19 |issue=2 |pages=63–64 |doi=10.2307/3110685 |jstor=3110685 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3110685 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180926054826/https://www.jstor.org/stable/3110685 |archive-date=26 September 2018 |url-access=subscription }}</ref> Alternatively, the symbol could have come from a snake and cross emblem on the thaler coins.<ref name=ander2019/>

===Less likely theories=== The following theories seem to have been discredited or contradicted by documentary evidence:

* James Alton James proposed that the symbol with two strokes was adapted from a 1778 design by financier Robert Morris, found in his letters to Pollock.<ref>{{cite book |last = James |first = J.A. |author-link = James Alton James |year = 1970 |orig-year = 1937 |title = Robert Morris: The life and times of an unknown patriot |publisher = Books for Libraries Press |place = Freeport, RI |page = 356 |isbn = 978-0-8369-5527-9 |url = https://books.google.com/books?id=kht_DEllNccC |via = Google }}</ref><ref name=roth2018/><ref>{{cite journal |last = James |first = J.A. |author-link = James Alton James |year = 1929 |title = Robert Morris, financier of the revolution in the west |journal = The Mississippi Valley Historical Review |doi = 10.2307/1898528 |jstor = 1898528 }}</ref>{{full citation|date=October 2025|reason=Not enough to locate source: volume, isssue, & pages missing, and just the year doesn't specify what issue.}} * Henrietta Larson suggested that the sign could derive from a combination of the Greek character "psi" ({{math|ψ}}) and 'S'.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Larson |first=H.M. |author-link=Henrietta Larson |date=October 1939 |title=Note on our dollar sign |journal=Bulletin of the Business Historical Society |volume=13 |issue=4 |pages=57–58 |doi=10.2307/3111350 |jstor=3111350 }}</ref> * Another theory claims that the sign started off as a monogram of "US", with a narrow 'U' superimposed on the 'S'; the bottom part of the 'U' would have been lost, producing the dollar sign with two vertical lines. Florian Cajori found this theory mentioned in 1876 letters to the journal ''Notes and Queries''.<ref name=cajori1929/> Henry R. Towne begins his 1886 essay on management stating this theory.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Towne |first=H.R. |author-link=Henry R. Towne |title=Engineer as an economist |year=1886 |journal=Transactions of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers |place=New York, NY |publisher=ASME |url=http://archive.org/details/transactionsof07amer |via=Internet Archive }}</ref> This was also claimed by Ayn Rand in her 1957 novel ''Atlas Shrugged''; in Rand's conjecture is that the "US" monogram was imprinted on the money bags used by the United States Mint.<ref name=hist2018>{{cite web |title=Where did the dollar sign come from? |date=22 August 2018 |website=history.com |place=New York, NY |publisher=History Channel |url=https://www.history.com/news/where-did-the-dollar-sign-come-from |access-date=12 August 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210812172054/https://www.history.com/news/where-did-the-dollar-sign-come-from |archive-date=12 August 2021 }}</ref><ref name=ander2019/> * {{harvp|Seijas|Frederick|2017|pp=3–4}} noted that the captors of slaves in Spanish territories sometimes branded enslaved people with a symbol very similar to a one-barred dollar sign. ''Esclavo'' is Spanish for "slave," and ''clavo'' means nail. A dollar sign would then be 'S' + ''clavo'', ('{{big|{{math|Ꞌ}}}}').<ref name=seij2017>{{cite book |last1=Seijas |first1=Tatiana |first2=Jake |last2=Frederick |year=2017 |title=Spanish Dollars and Sister Republics: The money that made Mexico and the United States |isbn=978-1-5381-0046-2 |place=Lanham, MD |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |pages=3–4}}</ref> * A theory often cited in Portuguese speaking countries is that the 'S' part of the doubly-stroked sign is a schematic representation of the path followed by the Umayyad Caliphate general Tariq Ibn Ziyad in his conquest of the Visigoth kingdom in 711 CE, and the two strokes represent the Pillars of Hercules that he would have crossed along that path. That symbol would have been engraved in coins commemorating his victory, and then became symbolic of currency in general.<ref name=cmoeda>{{cite web |title=Origem do cifrão |lang=pt |trans-title=Origin of the dollar sign |year=2015 |publisher=Casa da Moeda do Brasil |place=Rio de Janeiro, BR |url=https://www.casadamoeda.gov.br/portal/socioambiental/cultural/origem-do-cifrao.html |access-date=12 August 2021 }}</ref>

* ''Encyclopaedia Britannica'' describes the hypothesis that the symbol is derived from the Arabic numeral "8" in reference to the Spanish dollar or "piece of eight" as a "popular theory" for which there is a lack of documentary evidence.<ref>"[https://www.britannica.com/money/dollar-sign dollar sign]" on ''Encyclopaedia Britannica'' website, viewed 2026-04-11</ref>

==Currencies that use the dollar sign== ===As symbol of the currency=== The numerous currencies called "dollar" use the dollar sign to express money amounts. The sign is also generally used for the many currencies called "peso" (except the Philippine peso, which uses the symbol "₱"). Within a country the dollar/peso sign may be used alone. In other cases, and to avoid ambiguity in international usage, it is usually combined with other glyphs, e.g. CA$ or Can$ for Canadian dollar. Particularly in professional contexts, the unambiguous ISO 4217 three letter code (AUD, MXN, USD, etc.) is preferred.

The dollar sign, alone or in combination with other glyphs, is or was used to denote several currencies with other names, including:

* Brazilian cruzeiro (various currencies, all defunct): ₢$, CR{{dollar2}}, Cr{{dollar2}}, NCr{{dollar2}}, etc. * Brazilian real: R$ * Ethiopian birr (until 1976): E$ * Macanese pataca: MOP$ * Nicaraguan córdoba: C$ * Samoan tālā (a transliteration of the word dollar): $ * Tongan paʻanga: T$ * Malaya and British Borneo dollar (1957–1967): $ * Malaysian ringgit (1967–1997): $, M$, M{{dollar2}} * New Taiwan dollar: NT$, 元, $ * South Vietnamese đồng (1953–1975): $, {{dollar2}}

====Prefix or suffix==== In the United States, Mexico, Australia, Argentina, Chile, Colombia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Pacific Island nations, and English-speaking Canada, the sign is written ''before'' the number ("$5"),{{efn| This '$-first' order is inconsistent with use of the cent symbol ('¢'), which is written after the number in most (all?) countries that use it, {{nobr|e.g., "25¢".}}}} even though, when the word is written out or spoken, it is put ''after'' the number ("five dollars", "{{lang|es|cinco pesos}}"). The exception is French-speaking Canada, where the dollar symbol usually appears after the number,<ref>{{cite web |title=Banque de dépannage linguistique - Somme d'argent |website=Office québécois de la langue française |url=https://bdl.oqlf.gouv.qc.ca/bdl/gabarit_bdl.asp?id=1584 |access-date=31 October 2022 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220929085154/https://bdl.oqlf.gouv.qc.ca/bdl/gabarit_bdl.asp?id=1584 |archive-date=29 September 2022 }}</ref> the same as the spoken order, e.g., "{{not a typo|5 $}}" for "{{lang|fr-CA|cinq dollars}}".

===Use in the Portuguese Empire=== thumb|Car for sale in Cape Verde, showing use of the ''cifrão'' as decimals separator In Portugal, Brazil, and other parts of the Portuguese Empire, the two-stroke variant of the sign named '''{{lang|pt|cifrão}}''' ({{IPA|pt|siˈfɾɐ̃w|-|Pt-cifrão.oga}}; plural {{lang|pt|cifrões}}) has been used as the thousands separator in the national currency, the real (plural "réis", abbreviated "Rs."). For instance, {{Cifrão|123|500}} would be equivalent to {{val|123500|u=réis}}. This usage is attested in 1775, but may be older by a century or more.<ref name="beux1775">João Joseph Du Beux (1775): [https://www.unicamp.br/iel/memoria/base_temporal/Numeros/vcXVIII_75a.htm Receipt of 270$000 Rs.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210812225714/https://www.unicamp.br/iel/memoria/base_temporal/Numeros/vcXVIII_75a.htm |date=12 August 2021 }} for purchase by of 50 volumes of the ''Acta Santorum'' by the College of the Carmo of Coimbra. Quote: "Recebemos [...] a quantia de Duzentos Settenta mil réis[...] por Clareza passamos este Coimbra 15 de Março de 1775. São {{Cifrão|270|000}} Rs". Cartório do Colégio do Carmo, Maço 35, n.o 17. apud ALMEIDA, Manuel Lopes in "Livro, livreiros, impressores em documentos da Universidade", Arquivo de Bibliografia Portuguesa, ano X–XII, Atlântida, Coimbra, 1964–66, n o 37–48.</ref> The cifrão is always written with two vertical lines like {{cifrão}}, and is the official sign of the Cape Verdean escudo (ISO 4217: CVE).

In 1911, Portugal redefined the national currency as the escudo, worth {{val|1000|u=réis}}, and divided into 100 {{lang|pt|centavos|nocat=yes}}; but the ''cifrão'' continued to be used as the decimal separator,<ref name=silva2019/> so that {{Cifrão|123|50}} meant {{val|123.50|u=escudos}} or 123 escudos and 50 centavos. This usage ended in 2002 when the country switched to the euro. (A similar scheme to use a letter symbol instead of a decimal point is used by the RKM code in electrical engineering since 1952.)

Cape Verde, a republic and former Portuguese colony, similarly switched from the real to their local escudo and centavos in 1914, and retains the ''cifrão'' usage as decimals separator as of 2021. Local versions of the Portuguese escudo were for a time created also for other overseas colonies, including East Timor (1958–1975), Portuguese India (1958–1961), Angola (1914–1928 and 1958–1977), Mozambique (1914–1980), Portuguese Guinea (1914–1975), and São Tomé and Príncipe (1914–1977); all using the ''cifrão'' as decimals separator.{{citation needed|date=December 2022}}

Brazil retained the real and the ''cifrão'' as thousands separator until 1942, when it switched to the Brazilian cruzeiro, with comma as the decimals separator. The dollar sign, officially with one stroke but often rendered with two, was retained as part of the currency symbol {{nowrap|"Cr$"}}, so one would write {{nowrap|Cr$13,50}} for 13 cruzeiros and 50 centavos.<ref name=cruz1960>(1960): Price {{nowrap|"Cr$ 15,00"}} on the [https://muzeez.com.br/historias/revista-o-cruzeiro-1960/aznCgnu8gZiLGC4KJ front cover] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210814221630/https://muzeez.com.br/historias/revista-o-cruzeiro-1960/aznCgnu8gZiLGC4KJ |date=14 August 2021 }} of the 1960-05-07 issue of ''O Cruzeiro'' magazine, reproduced on the ''Muzeez'' website on 2016-12-105. Accessed on 2021-08-14.</ref>

The ''cifrão'' was formerly used by the Portuguese escudo (ISO: PTE) before its replacement by the euro and by the Portuguese Timor escudo (ISO: TPE) before its replacement by the Indonesian rupiah and the US dollar.<ref name="LT">Lisbon-tourist-guide.com. "[http://www.lisbon-tourist-guide.com/portuguese-escudo.html Portuguese Escudo] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221002162306/https://www.lisbon-tourist-guide.com/portuguese-escudo.html |date=2 October 2022 }}." 2008.</ref> In Portuguese and Cape Verdean usage, the {{lang|pt|cifrão}} is placed as a decimal point between the escudo and {{lang|pt|centavo}} values.<ref name="Moedas">Banco de Cabo Verde. "[http://www.bcv.cv/vPT/Notas%20e%20Moedas/Moedas/Paginas/Moedas.aspx Moedas] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110122182747/http://www.bcv.cv/vPT/Notas%20e%20Moedas/Moedas/Paginas/Moedas.aspx |date=2011-01-22 }}." Accessed 25 Feb 2011.</ref> The name originates in the Arabic {{lang|ar-Latn|ṣifr}} ({{wikt-lang|ar|صِفْر}}), meaning 'zero'.<ref name="Casa da Moeda">{{cite web |last=Casa da Moeda |title=Origem do Cifrão |url=http://www.casadamoeda.gov.br/portal/socioambiental/cultural/origem-do-cifrao.html |publisher=Casadamoeda.gov.br |access-date=11 March 2018 |archive-date=12 March 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180312022635/http://www.casadamoeda.gov.br/portal/socioambiental/cultural/origem-do-cifrao.html |url-status=live |language=pt }}</ref>

Outside the Portuguese cultural sphere, the South Vietnamese đồng before 1975 used a method similar to the ''cifrão'' to separate values of đồng from its decimal subunit ''xu''. For example, {{Cifrão|7|50}} meant 7 đồng and 50 xu.

==One stroke vs. two strokes== thumb|upright|Double-barred dollar or {{lang|pt|Cifrão}} sign {{see also|Pound sign#Double bar style}}

In some places and at some times, the one- and two-stroke variants have been used in the same contexts to distinguish between the U.S. dollar and other local currency, such as the former Portuguese escudo.<ref name=silva2019>{{cite web | title=Currency signs missing in Unicode | author=Eduardo Marín Silva | publisher=Unicode Consortium | url=http://www.unicode.org/L2/L2019/19291-missing-currency.pdf | date=22 July 2019 | access-date=12 August 2021 | archive-date=31 August 2021 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210831201544/https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2019/19291-missing-currency.pdf | url-status=live }}</ref>

However, such usage is not standardized, and the Unicode specification considers the two versions as graphic variants of the same symbol—a typeface design choice.<ref name="U+0024">{{cite book |title=The Unicode Standard, Version 15.1 |chapter=C0 Controls and Basic Latin {{!}} Range: 0000–007F |chapter-url=https://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U0000.pdf |publisher=Unicode Consortium}}</ref> Computer and typewriter keyboards usually have a single key for that sign, and many character encodings (including ASCII and Unicode) reserve a single numeric code for it. Indeed, dollar signs in the same digital document may be rendered with one or two strokes, if different computer fonts are used, but the underlying codepoint U+0024 (ASCII 3610) remains unchanged.

When a specific variant is not mandated by law or custom, the choice is usually a matter of expediency or aesthetic preference. Both versions were used in the US in the 18th century. (An 1861 Civil War-era advertisement depicts the two-stroked symbol as a snake.<ref name=roth2018/>) The two-stroke version seems to be generally less popular today, though used in some "old-style" fonts like Baskerville.

==Use in computer software== Because of its use in early American computer applications such as business accounting, the dollar sign is almost universally present in computer character sets, and thus has been appropriated for many purposes unrelated to money in programming languages and command languages.

===Encoding=== The dollar sign "$" has ASCII and Unicode code point U+0024 (in Unicode's Latin-1 block inherited from ASCII).<ref name="U+0024"/>

* {{unichar| 0024| Dollar sign| html=}}{{efn|{{as of|April 2022}}, HTML5 is the only version of HTML that has a named entity for the dollar sign.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.w3.org/TR/html4/sgml/entities.html|title=24 Character entity references in HTML 4|quote=The following sections present the complete lists of character entity references|website=www.w3.org|access-date=7 April 2018|archive-date=1 April 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180401051616/http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/sgml/entities.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.w3.org/TR/2014/CR-html5-20140731/syntax.html#named-character-references |title=8.5 Named character references |quote=dollar;{{nbsp}}{{nbsp}}{{nbsp}}U+00024{{nbsp}}{{nbsp}}{{nbsp}}$ |access-date=7 April 2018 |archive-date=5 August 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170805013240/http://www.w3.org/TR/2014/CR-html5-20140731/syntax.html#named-character-references |url-status=live }}</ref>}}

There are no separate encodings for one- and two-line variants. The choice is typeface-dependent; they are allographs. However, there are three other code points that originate from other East Asian standards: the Taiwanese small form variant, the CJK fullwidth form, and the Japanese emoji. The glyphs for these code points are typically larger or smaller than the primary code point, but the difference is mostly aesthetic or typographic, and the meanings of the symbols are the same.

* {{unichar| FE69| Small dollar sign| html =}} * {{unichar| FF04| Fullwidth dollar sign| html =}} * {{unichar| 1F4B2| Heavy dollar sign| html =}}

However, for usage as the special character in various computing applications (see following sections), U+0024 is typically the only code that is recognized.

Support for the two-line variant varies. {{As of|2019|post=,}} the Unicode standard considers the distinction between one- and two-bar dollar signs a stylistic distinction between fonts, and has no separate code point for the {{lang|pt|cifrão}}. The symbol is not in the October 2019 "pipeline",<ref>{{cite web | url= https://unicode.org/alloc/Pipeline.html | title= Proposed New Characters: The Pipeline | publisher= Unicode Consortium | date= 11 October 2019 | accessdate= 26 December 2019 | archive-date= 31 March 2017 | archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20170331011749/https://unicode.org/alloc/Pipeline.html | url-status= live }}</ref> though it has been requested formally.<ref name=silva2019/>

Among others, the following fonts display a double-bar dollar sign for code point 0024:{{Citation needed|date=February 2011}} regular-weight Baskerville, Big Caslon, Bodoni MT, Garamond: ($)

In LaTeX, with the {{Proper name|textcomp}} package installed, the {{lang|pt|cifrão}} ({{dollar2}}) can be input using the command <code>\textdollaroldstyle</code>. However, because of font substitution and the lack of a dedicated code point, the author of an electronic document who uses one of these fonts intending to represent a {{lang|pt|cifrão}} cannot be sure that every reader will see a double-bar glyph rather than the single barred version. Because of the continued lack of support in Unicode, a single bar dollar sign is frequently employed in its place even for official purposes.<ref name="Moedas"/><ref>Banco Central do Brasil. "[http://www4.bcb.gov.br/pec/taxas/batch/tabmoedasi.asp?id=curtable Currency table.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170514181516/http://www4.bcb.gov.br/pec/taxas/batch/tabmoedasi.asp?id=curtable |date=14 May 2017 }}" Accessed 24 Feb 2011.</ref> Where there is any risk of misunderstanding, the ISO 4217 three-letter acronym is used. ====Japanese==== The character {{unichar|3326}} is a squared word version of {{lang|ja|ドル}} ({{transl|ja|doru}} "dollar", in Japanese). The character {{unichar|5F17}} has been formerly repurposed as a symbol for dollars in Japan because of its visual similarity. It was also read as {{transl|ja|doru}}<ref name="KDJ">{{cite book |title=Kokugo dai-jiten |date=1993 |publisher=Shōgakukan |location=Tōkyō |isbn=9784095010021 |language=ja}}</ref><ref name="Daijirin">{{cite book |editor1-last=Matsumura |editor1-first=Akira |title=大辞林 [Daijirin] |date=2006 |publisher=Sanseidō |location=Tokyo |isbn=4-385-13905-9 |edition=Third |language=ja}}</ref>

===Programming languages=== * In BASIC, {{code|$}} is appended to a variable name to define that variable’s data type as a character string, for example, <code>H$="Hello, world!"</code>.  In discussion, the variable <code>H$</code> would be referred to as “H string.” * {{code|$}} is prefixed to names to define variables in the PHP language and the AutoIt automation script language, scalar variables in the Perl language (see sigil (computer programming)), and global variables in the Ruby language. In Perl programming this includes scalar elements of arrays {{code|2=perl|$array[7]}} and hashes {{code|2=perl|$hash{foo} }}. * In Unix shells, and later in other programming languages, {{code|$}} introduces an expression that should be evaluated to yield text. Languages that have adopted this convention include Perl, JavaScript, C#, Scala, Groovy and Kotlin. Other languages, including Java and Python, use it to mark the place where the result of an expression elsewhere should be inserted into text. * {{code|$}} is used for defining hexadecimal constants in some variants of assembly language (such as the Motorola 6800, Motorola 68000 and MOS Technology 6502 assembly languages), in Pascal and in Pascal-like languages such as Free Pascal and Delphi. * {{code|$}} is used in the ALGOL 68 language to delimit transput format regions. * {{code|$}} is used in the TeX typesetting language to delimit mathematical regions. * In many versions of FORTRAN 66, {{code|$}} could be used as an alternative to a quotation mark for delimiting strings. * In PL/M, {{code|$}} can be used to put a visible separation between words in compound identifiers. For example, {{code|Some$Name}} refers to the same thing as <code>SomeName</code>. * In Haskell, {{code|$}} is used as a function application operator. * In an AutoHotkey script, a hotkey declared with {{code|$}} is not triggered by a 'Send' command elsewhere in the script. * The jQuery library defines {{code|$}} as its main symbol, primarily as a function that queries a web page for one or more HTML elements, but also with other utilities attached to it as properties like {{code|$.ajax}}. The Prototype.js library defines it similarly for querying. * In ASP.NET, the dollar sign used in a tag in the web page indicates an expression will follow it. The expression that follows is .NET language-agnostic, as it will work with C#, VB.NET, or any CLR supported language. * In Java, {{code|$}} can appear inside a class name in a Java class file due to name mangling. For example, if a class <code>Outer</code> has an inner class <code>Inner</code>, the compiled class file will be named <code>Outer$Inner.class</code>. * In Erlang, the dollar sign precedes character literals. The dollar sign as a character can be written {{code|$$}}. * In COBOL the {{code|$}} sign is used in the Picture clause to depict a floating currency symbol as the left most character. The default symbol is {{code|$}}; however, if the {{code|1=CURRENCY=}} or {{code|CURRENCY SIGN}} clause is specified, many other symbols can be used. * In some assembly languages, such as MIPS, the {{code|$}} sign is used to represent registers. * In Honeywell 6000 series assembler, the {{code|$}} sign, when used as an address, meant the address of the instruction in which it appeared. * In CMS-2, the {{code|$}} sign is used as a statement terminator. * In R, the {{code|$}} sign is used as a subsetting operator. * In Q (programming language from Kx Systems), the {{code|$}} sign is used as a casting/padding/enumeration/conditional operator. * In Sass, the {{code|$}} sign is prefixed to define a variable. * In Svelte, the {{code|$}} sign can be used to mark reactive statements.

===Operating systems=== * In CP/M and subsequently in all versions of 86-DOS and MS-DOS compatible operating systems, {{code|$}} marks the end of text displayed with system function 9. CP/M developer Gary Kildall never explained the choice and once pointedly remarked that he knew the reason while Bill Gates did not.<ref>{{cite book|last=Kildall|first=Gary|title=Computer Connections}}</ref> Prior uses of {{code|$}} for the "end of line" or "end of text" include JOVIAL, CMS-2, the QED editor and DECsystem-10 (a known influence on CP/M), which displayed the character to confirm that the user pressed the escape key to complete a line of input. * In Windows, {{code|$}} is appended to the share name to hide a shared folder or resource. For example, {{code|\\server\share}} will be visible to other computers on a network, while {{code|\\server\share$}} will be accessible only by explicit reference. Hiding a shared folder or resource will not alter its access permissions but may render it inaccessible to programs or other functions which rely on its visibility. Most administrative shares are hidden in this way. * In the LDAP directory access protocol, {{code|$}} is used as a line separator in various standard entry attributes such as <code>postalAddress</code>. * In the UNIVAC EXEC 8 operating system, {{code|$}} means "system". It is appended to entities such as the names of system files, the "sender" name in messages sent by the operator, and the default names of system-created files (like compiler output) when no specific name is specified (e.g., {{code|TPF$}}, {{code|NAME$}}, etc.) * In RISC OS, {{code|$}} is used in system variables to separate the application name from the variables specific to that application. For example <code>Draw$Dir</code> specifies the directory where the <code>!Draw</code> application is located. It is also used to refer to the root directory of a file system.

===Applications=== * Excel<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://web.pdx.edu/~stipakb/CellRefs.htm|title=Relative & Absolute Cell References in Excel|access-date=23 April 2015|archive-date=17 March 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150317124839/http://web.pdx.edu/~stipakb/CellRefs.htm|url-status=live}}</ref> and other spreadsheet software use the dollar sign ($) to denote a fixed row, fixed column reference, or an absolute cell reference. * The dollar sign introduces a subfield delimiter in computer coding of library catalog records. * {{code|$}} matches the end of a line or string in sed, grep, and POSIX and Perl regular expressions, as well as the end of a line or the file in text editors ed, ex, vi, pico, and derivatives.

==Other uses== The symbol is sometimes used derisively, in place of the letter S, to indicate greed or excess money such as in "Micro$oft", "Di$ney", "Chel$ea" and "GW$"; or supposed overt Americanization as in "$ky". The dollar sign is also used intentionally to stylize names such as A$AP Rocky, Ke$ha, and Ty Dolla $ign or words such as ¥€$. In 1872, Ambrose Bierce referred to California governor Leland Stanford as {{Proper name|$tealand Landford}}.<ref>{{cite book|title=Ambrose Bierce: Alone in Bad Company|author=Roy Morris|publisher=Oxford University Press|date=1995|page=176|isbn=9780195126280}}</ref>

In Scrabble notation, a dollar sign is placed after a word to indicate that it is valid according to the North American word lists, but not according to the British word lists.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.tucsonscrabble.com/articles/glossary.html|title=Scrabble Glossary|publisher=Tucson Scrabble Club|access-date=2012-02-06|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110830073348/http://www.tucsonscrabble.com/articles/glossary.html|archive-date=2011-08-30|url-status=dead}}</ref>

A dollar symbol is used as unit of reactivity for a nuclear reactor, {{val|0|ul=$}} being the threshold of slow criticality, meaning a steady reaction rate, while {{val|1|u=$}} is the threshold of prompt criticality, which means a nuclear excursion or explosion.<ref>{{cite book| first1=Alvin M.| last1=Weinberg|author-link=Alvin M. Weinberg| first2=Eugene P.| last2=Wigner|author-link2=Eugene Wigner| title=The Physical Theory of Neutron Chain Reactors| place=Chicago| publisher=University of Chicago Press| year=1958| page=595}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://sites.ntc.doe.gov/partners/tr/Training%20Textbooks/10-Nuclear%20Physics-Reactor%20Theory/4-Mod-4%20Reactor%20Operations.pdf|publisher=U. S. Department of Energy|accessdate=2022-07-25|page=16|date=n.d.|title=DOE Fundamentals: Nuclear Physics and Reactor Theory: Module 4: Reactor Theory (Reactor Operations)|archive-date=27 May 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220527101730/https://sites.ntc.doe.gov/partners/tr/Training%20Textbooks/10-Nuclear%20Physics-Reactor%20Theory/4-Mod-4%20Reactor%20Operations.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref>

In the 1993 version of the Turkmen Latin alphabet $ was used as a transliteration of the Cyrillic letter Ш, in 1999 was replaced by the letter Ş.

==See also== * List of circulating currencies{{snd}} includes their currency signs where recognized * List of emoticons{{snd}} for use of the $ sign in emoticons

==Explanatory notes== {{notelist}}

==References== ===Citations=== {{Reflist|30em}}

===General and cited sources=== {{refbegin}} * {{cite book | author=Cajori, Florian | author-link=Cajori, Florian | title=A History of Mathematical Notations | location=New York | publisher=Dover |edition=Reprint | year=1993 | isbn=0-486-67766-4 | title-link=A History of Mathematical Notations}} Contains section on the history of the dollar sign, with much documentary evidence supporting the "pesos" hypothesis. * {{cite book |last=Cuhaj |first=George |title=Standard Catalog of United States Paper Money |publisher=Krause Publications |edition=28th |year=2009 |isbn=978-0-89689-939-1}} * {{cite book |last=Ovason |first=David |title=The Secret Symbols of the Dollar Bill |publisher=Harper Paperbacks |edition=Reprint |date=2004-11-30 |isbn=0-06-053045-6 | url= https://books.google.com/books?id=SGICN1DT1gsC}} {{refend}}

==External links== * {{Commons category-inline}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dollar Peso Sign}} Category:Currency symbols Category:Numismatics Category:Dollar Category:Latin-script ligatures