Origin of Dollar Sign

Apparently, there is some new conspiracy theory running around that claims that the dollar sign ($) is some sort of symbol for a secret banking cartel because “S” is not found in the word “dollar”. Sorry, it seems that these people are desperate to create some support for whatever it is they are trying to say. First of all, the word “dollar” comes from the German “thaler” because there was such resentment toward England that the colonists refused to use the word “pound” for money.

The British needed money badly, so they demanded any payment from the colonists was to be in silver and gold, but any payment to America was to be in copper. This resulted in AMERICA being starved of money to the point that they issued paper money. The standard coin used in America was the Spanish 8 reals, which became the dollar. A piece of eight was cutting this up like a pie. One eighth of a dollar or one silver real was one “bit”, so 2 bits was 25 cents, 4 bits was half a dollar, and 8 bits equaled a dollar.

Therefore, the dollar sign “$” came from the Spanish 8 reals, not from some secret banking cartel destined to rule the world. There is no secret hidden image of meaning behind the symbol. It was merely taken from the Spanish coins that were in circulation throughout the American colonies since the British needed money and extracted everything from America, just as governments are doing again today.