| 词源 |
$ (dollar sign). $—the dollar sign—probably doesn’t derive from the figure “8” on Spanish “pieces of eight,” the usual ex- planation. The dollar sign was most likely modified from the twisted Pillars of Hercules stamped with a scroll around them on the pieces of eight. It may, however, result from a combina- tion of the two symbols, or a corruption of the Spanish Ps, the contraction for “peso.” Anyway, if George Washington threw a silver dollar across the Potomac or Delaware, it must have been a foreign coin—for, as noted, American silver dollars weren’t minted at the time. |