In an article yesterday 'How the US Dollar Was the Crypto of Its Time', I explored the humble roots of the US Dollar.

I this article I explore how the Dollar sign came to be.

Whilst the origins of the term ‘Dollar’ and its transformation to common usage in the US appears to follow a well laid-out path. The evolution of the $ sign itself is somewhat more uncertain. There are a number of competing theories, each of which are seemingly possible, though some with more credence than others.

The most likely is the theory that it comes from a handwritten 'ps', an abbreviation used in correspondence as a plural form of 'Peso'. Manuscripts from the late 18th and early 19th century show the ‘s’ gradually being written over the ‘p’, and the upward stroke of the ‘p’gaining dominance over the curved upper part. This eventually developed into something resembling the ‘$’ sign. (see below)

The 'ps' symbol first occurs in the 1770s, in manuscript documents of English-Americans who had business dealings with Spanish-Americans, and it starts to appear in print more commonly after 1800.  

Other theories for the $ sign include:

• It is inspired by the mint mark on the Spanish ‘Pieces of Eight’ coin which became known as the Spanish Dollar. The coins were minted in Potosí in present day Bolivia. The mint mark was composed of the letters "PTSI" superimposed upon each other. The mark bears a strong resemblance to the single-stroke dollar sign (see photo right). 

• The $ sign is derived from the Number 8, whereby the Spanish Dollar was originally a ‘Piece of Eight’. The P of Peso and the 8 were said to be combined. The modification would have occurred to avoid confusion between the number and the signal. – This explanation would however seem implausible, as the confusion between a number and currency sign would have probably been too great. 

These theories seem plausible, though no one is sure for certain itseems. Even more uncertain however is where the drawing of the $ sign with 2 lines running through it derives from.

• The sign was inspired by the Spanish coat of arms engraved on the colonial silver coins which were in
  
  circulation in Spain's colonies in America and Asia. These coins, depicted the Pillars of Hercules a small "S"-shaped horizontal ribbon wrapped around each pillar. For the sake of simplicity, traders might have written signs that, instead of saying dollar or peso that may have evolved into a simple S with two vertical bars. – Highly speculative though plausible. (See picture on right)

• A dollar sign with two vertical lines could have started off as a monogram of 'US', used on money bags issued by the United States Mint. The letters U and S superimposed resemble the historical double-stroke dollar sign: the bottom of the 'U' disappears into the bottom curve of the 'S', leaving two vertical lines. Ayn Rand, the American libertarian philosopher, endorsed this theory in her novel Atlas Shrugged. However there is no documentary evidence for this theory though,. 

As for the designs and evolution of US banknotes, this is a separate and very interesting story. Time magazine prodiced an excellent article on this which can be seen here: https://time.com/5383055/dollar-bill-design-history/

Article by Steven Goldstein 

Steven Goldstein is a Performance, Team and Executive Coach who focuses on Risk and Financial Markets people and businesses.

Core to Steven's work is the belief that everyone has the potential, often latent or hidden within them, to surpass where they are now and to grow into what they want to be. His work as a coach helps people to rediscover that potential, to recognise it, to value it, and to leverage it to be better, happier, and more productive.

Prior to becoming a coach Steven worked for more than 20 years as a Rates and FX trader at some of the world’s leading investment banks. See Steven's Full Profile.

If you are curious about how Steven could help you or your business, please email him at info@alpharcubed.com. or call +44 (0)7753 446097. To know more about the work of AlphaRCubed and their broader performance and growth development services, please view their brochure at this link. .
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How the US Dollar Was the CryptoCurrency of Its Time.

Views on crypto-currencies range across the spectrum. For some often older more conservative types, crypto-currencies are all just a fad. At the other extreme the millennials and Gen Z’s see crypto-currencies as here to stay and very much the future.

Whilst the jury remains out, a look at the Dollar's own growth and adoption as a currency may hold some clues. The Dollar itself had its own humble roots as a rival currency replacing more established ones. 

Where did the Dollar come from?

The word ‘Dollar’ is derived from the German word ‘Thaler’. The ‘Thaler’ being a silver coin minted in Bohemia and in use throughout Central Europe in the 16th Century. 

The word Thaler was a shortened form of the word ‘Joachimsthaler’, a coin from the Czech city of Jachymov, formerly called Joachimsthal in German. 

The ‘Joachimsthaler’ was a great success as a new currency. It had been part of a revolution in European coinage which had been occurring since the late 15th century. 

This desire for new coinage was a reaction to repeated debasement which had seen an erosion of the silver content of existing coinage. This debasement occurred due to rulers needing to finance the costs of virtually continual wars, and by the unremitting one-way transfer, over many centuries, of silver and gold to India and the Far East to pay for the importation of sought after raw materials, spices and fine cloth. 

The continual debasement had seen the silver content in the dominant European coinage of the time drop to less than five per cent, making them worth far less than their perceived value. 

Following the success of the ‘Joachimsthaler’, similar coins started to be minted from other rich seams of silver elsewhere in Europe. Soon there were many such coins in circulation.

All these new coins soon became known as ‘Thalers’. 

With increasing circulation, the name ‘Thaler’ found its way into various other languages. In Dutch it was known as ’Daler' which into English became pronounced ‘Dollar’.

So there is the name. But how did it this become the dominant currency in the early United States?

During the latter 16th Century the ‘Republic of the Seven United Netherlands’ issued a coin known as a ‘Rijksdaalder’ (Dutch for ‘National Dollar’). This coin was minted to the same standards as the Thalers which were common throughout Western and Central Europe.

The Dutch also minted a coin known as a ‘Leeuwendaalder’, or ‘Lion Dollar’; it depicted a Lion, the emblem of the ‘Union of Utrecht’, the treaty which founded the ‘Republic of the Seven United Netherlands’.

The Leeuwendaalder had a slightly lower silver content to the ‘Rijksdaalder’, and hence was of less cost to merchants. Because of this it was beneficial for Dutch merchants to pay foreign debts in ‘Leeuwendaalder’, rather than ‘Rijksdaalder’. 

At the time, the Dutch were prominent in overseas trade, and the Leeuwendaalder’ soon became a favoured coin for foreign trade, particularly in their Dutch colonial province on the East Coast of North America. 

The provincial capital of this colony was New Amsterdam, which of course later changed its name to New York. At the time New Amsterdam was protected to its north by a wall. The route of which later was replaced by a road known as ‘Wall Street’. 

From New Amsterdam, the Leeuwendaalder’s usage spread to the Thirteen British colonies on the Atlantic coast of North America, where it was anglicised to the ‘Lion Dollar’, and later, the Dollar.

The term ‘Dollar’ soon came to be applied to other similar large silver coins which were practically identical in weight and fineness to the ‘Leeuwendaalder’, or ‘Lion Dollar’. 

The Spanish Peso also become widely acceptable as one of the world’s major trading currencies. As a shortage of official British coinage impacted the British North American colonies, people started using the Spanish Peso (known in the British North American Colonies as the ‘Spanish Dollar’). This began to circulate widely in North America. 

When the United States gained its independence, making a kind of 18th century Brexit, the newly independent nation chose the "Dollar" as the name of its currency rather than keeping the British Pound. 

And that is how the Dollar got its name and became the United States currency. 

The mighty US Dollar came from humble beginnings. Its forerunners replaced the existing predominant coinage which had been debased over many centuries by rulers to pay for the cost of international wars and to meet the cost of obligations to China and the Far East. Overtime merchants and traders preferred the new coinage mined from alternative sources until eventually it became the established dominant currency. 

So whilst it took a journey of centuries for the dollar to become accepted as 'currency', in modern times, what took centuries, now take decades, and what took decades no takes sometimes just months. Who know where Bitcoin, or some other cryptocurrency is on that journey! Nothing scares leaders and presidents, than another currency replacing theirs, devaluing their wealth. What similarity could there possibly be to today’s cryptos!!! 

Why not check out our recent AlphaMind podcast episode where Bitcoin expert Paul Gordon – Explains and Discusses Bitcoin for the Crypto-Curious and the Crypto-Sceptical.
https://alphamindblog.blogspot.com/2020/05/the-alphamind-podcast-paul-gordon.html

‘Investment – Nest Egg’image courtesy of jscreationzs / FreeDigitalPhotos.net".

Article by Steven Goldstein

Steven Goldstein is a leading Performance, Team and Executive Coach who focuses on Risk and Financial Markets people and businesses. 

Core to his work is the belief that everyone has the potential, often latent or hidden within them, to surpass where they are now and to grow into what they want to be. His work as a coach helps people to rediscover that potential, to recognise it, to value it, and to leverage it to be better, happier, and more productive. 

Prior to becoming a coach Steven worked for more than 20 years as a Rates and FX trader at some of the world’s leading investment banks. See Steven's Full Profile.

If you are curious about how Steven could help you or your business, please email him at info@alpharcubed.com. or call +44 (0)7753 446097. To know more about the work of AlphaRCubed and their broader performance and growth development services, please view their brochure at this link. 

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