History of the Dollar Sign

Welcome to the Grammar Minute, where we're saving the English language sixty seconds at a time! I'm Lauren Smyth, and as I like to remind people, I'm an economics major. So I care a little bit about money. I care more about tariffs and things like that, but trust me, you don't want to get me started. Anyway, this made me wonder: Where does the dollar sign come from, and should it have one line through the S or two? Nobody really knows the history of this sign, but it's also called the peso sign, suggesting that it evolved from Spanish Americans in the late 1700s. Originally it was an abbreviation for PS, but like most of the weird symbols we now use, people wrote too hastily and it became an S with a line through it. Or ... two lines. Both versions of the symbol are correct, and the difference is merely stylistic. Personally, I find the single line easier to read. That's your Grammar Minute! Visit thegrammarminute.com for more tips and tricks.