Why do we note money as we do?

[sinkoman]

Why is it that we write amounts of money with the symbol of the denomination preceding the actual amount?

It's really irritating to read, especially when it's usually enunciated with the the amount preceding the denomination.

 

[Darkside55]

Because "dollars 100" sounds stupid to say, and "100$" looks funny.

 

[xcellerate]

do you mean $20 as opposed to 20$?

You put the $ in front so when you're reading it you know how to say it. I mean, if you saw 1932 you'd probably say nineteen-thirty two, but if you saw $1932 you would say the full number.

So if we put the $ at the end, some people may not notice it until they already said nineteen-thirty two. It just prevents confusion.

 

[Dan]

If it as 1932 dollars you would probably write 1,932 or 1 932. Also, the same argument would then apply to any unit. Why not write mm 1932 to avoid confusion for a measure of length? And why put the cent sign after an amount in cents?

 

[Stigmata]

Because "dollars 100" sounds stupid to say, and "100$" looks funny.

100$ only looks funny because it's always written the other way.

That's a good question though, Sinkoman. It's the opposite of anything else that works with units. Scientific notation always puts the unit after the amount.

Far fetched idea: Maybe it was some attention-grabbing trick that some business owner stumbled upon when he was trying to get more people to come to his store? Putting the $ symbol first broke from the norm, more people took note, more people bought his stuff, and then people copied him in an effort to reduce loss of sale.

To be fair, I am pretty tired.

 

[Darkside55]

100$ only looks funny because it's always written the other way.

No, it looks funny because it looks funny and that's why we didn't do it. Congress had a vote back in the day on how we were going to label our newly-printed money, and one guy said, "Why don't we set the amount preceeding the symbol?"

They slapped that guy.

 

[Asus]

Perhaps it is important to know what currency the value is in first. Of course when you write it out properly and not with symbols and numbers then it reads like you say it.

 

[Naurgul]

We put the € after the number here, if that makes you feel any better.

 

[Druckles]

Wiki didn't cover it in its discussion of the Pound Sign (?/₤)

Edit: Mwa ha ha! I've discovered the method of writing ze Pound Sign!

 

[HunterSeeker]

We put our currency denominator (KR/SEK) after the number. It seems like its brits and yankees that want to be different.... again.

 

[Operational]

I've wondered this myself in the past.

 

[[Matt]]

found this online...

Another, more familiar, financial convention dates from the same period. The current English practice of placing the pound sign (?) before the number, in writing cheques and contracts, grew from the fear that a crook might add a digit or two at the left-hand end of the number. The end result is that we write one thing and say another. We don’t say $50 as 'dollars fifty'; we say 'fifty dollars' and we don't say ?50 as 'pounds fifty; we say fifty pounds. Putting the dollar sign before the number is clearly inconsistent with how we say the amount. And, just as clearly, we have not yet recovered from the use of the pound sign placed before the number.

Seems to be an anti fraud method. Read more here...

http://www.metricationmatters.com/docs/WritingMoney.pdf

 

[Darkside55]

Well, that makes sense. Better to be swindled in tens and ones than in hundreds and thousands.

 

[Cormeh]

Half life 2 dot net hates the pound.

?????????????????????????????????????????

Ka-ching!

 

[Druckles]

Nope. HL2.net lurves the pound

₤₤₤₤₤₤₤₤₤

Ka-ching

Oh, and yeah, anti-fraud makes sense. Should've thought of that myself, already.

 

[Darkside55]

But you didn't, which is why I added all these 1's and 0's to the beginning of your checks. Thanks for the Christmas money, Druckles.

 

[Druckles]

That's ok. You actually have your government to thank for that.

 

[[Matt]]

????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

I Demand A Fix!!!!

 

[Druckles]

₤

Live with it

 

[Cormeh]

No. Shift 3 is easier than ASCII.

 

[Druckles]

It's not ASCII. It's actually Unicode. But why bother complaining when you can just copy paste. Or just do a quick Ctrl/Alt + Space, Chara-, Enter then find it in the Map

 

[Operational]

Cool so it is an anti-fraud thing, makes sence.

Shift 3, so.. '#'

 

[Druckles]

I was tempted to comment about that, but figured any Americans would have no use for a pound sign so thought I'd ignore them.

Forgot you Aussies were smartarses

 

[[Matt]]

???????????????

I Still Demand A Fix!!!

 

[HunterSeeker]

I dunno, but wouldnt add digits to the right of the number substiansially increase the number as well, unless you write .0 or something.

 

[[Matt]]

Usually when working in currency you always add a .00 on the end no matter what which would mean anyone adding tot he number fraudulently could only add numbers after the decimal point? Wouldn't it look suspect if you saw a numerical number such as $100.0000000 ?

 

[Xendance]

Wiki didn't cover it in its discussion of the Pound Sign (?/₤)

Edit: Mwa ha ha! I've discovered the method of writing ze Pound Sign!

HAR HAR HAR HAR so have I: ₤

 

[sinkoman]

Usually when working in currency you always add a .00 on the end no matter what which would mean anyone adding tot he number fraudulently could only add numbers after the decimal point? Wouldn't it look suspect if you saw a numerical number such as $100.0000000 ?

It wouldn't be hard to convert the . to a ,

Then again, most people write the decimal as a really small number at the top of the line, and then put a slash under it.

 

[Druckles]

That's why .s are represented as a slash. Which I think might be what you're saying... but I don't quite understand.

 

[Krynn72]

The Dollar Sign $ - Theories of its Origins
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.

Perhaps this is less surprising when there has been controversy over the origin of the sign for the European euro, €, a currency that did not come into existence until 1999. (It has been claimed that the euro sign was invented by Arthur Eisenmenger more than a quarter of a century before the currency was introduced). Nevertheless a number of theories about the origin of the dollar symbol have been proposed.
The United States Abbreviation Theory
One of the most popular theories is that the dollar sign is derived from the initials of the United States. If you superimpose a capital "U" on a capital "S" then drop the lower part of the "U", what you end up with is a version of the dollar symbol with two strokes. This theory was endorsed by the American libertarian philosopher and staunch defender of capitalism, Ayn Rand, in her novel Atlas Shrugged. Chapter 10 is entitled the Sign of the Dollar. Rand claimed the dollar sign was the symbol not only of the currency, but also the nation, a free economy, and a free mind.
The Peso Abbreviation and Piece of Eight Theories
However, a more widely accepted theory nowadays is that the sign owes its origins to the Spanish peso.

One version of this theory is that the standard abbreviation of "peso" was simply "P", but the plural form was a large "P" with a small "s" above it and to its right. This was simplified by retaining only the upward stroke of the "P" and superimposing the "S" upon it. Hence the symbol of the dollar.

See:

Dreyfuss, Henry Symbol source book : an authoritative guide to international graphic symbols. New York : McGraw-Hill, 1972.

If the peso abbreviation theory is the correct one why is the US dollar sign sometimes written with two vertical strokes? A possible explanation is that the best known Spanish Peso coin had two pillars engraved on the reverse side to symbolise the "Pillars of Hercules" at Gibraltar and the words "Plus Ultra" indicating that beyond the Pillars of Hercules there were other lands. That coin was called the Pillar Dollar in the British colonies in North America and the two pillars may have become the two strokes in the Dollar sign.

For brief information on the "Pillar Dollar" see:

Nussbaum, Arthur A history of the dollar. New York : Columbia U.P., 1957.

There is another version of the theory linking the sign to the Spanish peso. As mentioned earlier the peso was subdivided into eight reals, hence the name piece of eight. This was represented as P8 or /8/. Eventually it became customary to write the oblique strokes across the figure 8. In the past precious metal coins were sometimes split into pieces to provide small change. The use in America of the expression two bits for 25 cents is a legacy of this since if a Spanish dollar or peso or piece of eight was split into quarters each part would consist of two of the original eight pieces or reals.

The 8 with two strokes became a letter S with two strokes since S looks like an 8 that has been split, as when a peso was broken to provide change in reals. Eventually a further simplification was introduced by dropping one of the strokes.
The Potosi Mint Mark Theory
Adherents of this theory also believe that the source of the dollar sign is to be found in the Spanish peso but they would attribute it specifically to coins minted in Potosi which was, as mentioned above, the world's richest source of silver. The mint mark of the Potosi mint evolved to become a monogrammed PTSI with all those letters completely superimposed so that the symbol looked like an S wrapped around a T. The resemblance to the dollar sign can be seen from the images of the Potosi Pillar Dollars. Click on the image for a larger picture. The mint mark is near the date. See also another image of the Potosi mint mark.
The Shilling Abbreviation Theory
There is a view, held by some typographers, that the dollar symbol derives from the abbreviation for the shilling, s, which was used in Britain, both as a coin and as a monetary unit, until decimalisation in 1971. A stroke through a letter was sometimes used to indicate that the letter was an abbreviation. The classic example of this is the British pound symbol ? which is a cursive capital L with a stroke through it. The pound symbol is derived from the Latin word for a pound weight, libra, since a pound of silver was the standard on which the monetary unit was based. In the case of the shilling the stroke through the s would have had an added significance.

Until 1971 when Britain divided the pound into 100 (new) pennies and abandoned the old sub-units, two different methods of representing the shilling were used; one was simply the letter s and the other was the oblique slash / which is also known as a solidus, the name of the Roman coin from which the shilling is derived. Actually the slash or solidus was used to separate shillings from pence when sums of money were written down, e.g. 4/6 for four shillings and sixpence. (For an amount consisting of an integral number of shillings a dash indicated zero pence, e.g. 3/- for three shillings).

If you make the slash or solidus vertical and combine it with the S you end up with $ - the dollar sign.

It may seem strange that having thrown off British rule and rejected the British pound in favour of the Spanish dollar, the Americans should adopt a symbol based on the abbreviation for the British shilling but during colonial times they had used British units for financial calculations even when they used substitutes, such as the Spanish dollar, as currency. Even today Americans still often refer to cents as pennies.

Furthermore, shillings had been produced in the colonies without authorisation from the British authorities. In 1652 John Hall set up a private mint in Massachusetts and produced coins known as pine tree shillings because of the picture of a pine tree stamped on them. His mint was forced to close in 1684, but because of it the word shilling would still have carried patriotic connotations a century later.
The Portuguese Cifr?o Theory
Even though Arabic numbers are used all over the world today, there are still differences in the way in which numbers are represented in different countries. In the English-speaking world a period is used to separate integral numbers from decimal fractions whereas in continental Europe the comma is used instead of the decimal point and either a period or a space is used for thousands and other groups of three digits. In the past the Spanish used a symbol called the calderon to separate the thousands, and the Portuguese used one called the cifr?o. As the cifr?o was also used to separate numeral expressions of different denominations and it consisted of the letter s with two vertical lines it has been suggested that it gave rise to the dollar symbol. (?ber die Herkunft des Dollarzeichens, Christian Weyers, Zeitschrift f?r Semiotik, vol 13, no. 3-4, 1992).

The Slavery Theory
There have been claims that the dollar symbol, $, is derived from the words for "slave" and "nail" in Spanish (or in Latin, according to one version of this theory that posits an earlier date for the invention of the symbol). The shackles worn by slaves could be locked by a nail which was passed through the rings or loops at the ends of the shackle and bent while it was still hot and malleable. The Spanish for slave is esclavo and for "nail" is clavo. Therefore the "S" with a nail, $, or S-clavo = esclavo or slave.

Slaves constituted a store of wealth and as a result the abbreviation for slaves that slave-owners used in their account books came to represent money.

This seems like the kind of explanation that would be popular with conspiracy theorists. It does not seem to be very popular in printed sources, at least not in English language ones, but I (Roy Davies) have seen it on the Internet and was also told it by someone who said he had heard it from a Latin-American economist and an American history professor.

 

[Anthraxxx]

Yanno what? USD is understood to be american currency, so that's how i'm going to refer to money.

100 USD is clear enough, right?

same as

1000.59 USD ?

 

[Pesmerga]

₤₤₤₤₤₤₤₤₤₤₤₤₤₤₤₤₤₤₤₤₤₤₤₤₤

 

[sinkoman]

Yanno what? USD is understood to be american currency, so that's how i'm going to refer to money.

100 USD is clear enough, right?

same as

1000.59 USD ?

I also tend to use USD over the dollar sign.

I always end up typing in denominations of money and forgetting to put in the dollar sign. So, instead of going back and fixing it, I just append USD to the end and get on with it.