Speaker 1: Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of iHeart Radio. Hey, brain Stuff,
Speaker 1: Lorn vog bomb here. And there's a decent chance that
Speaker 1: every single day you see a symbol for the dollar, pound, euro,
Speaker 1: or repeat. But where did those symbols come from? Some
Speaker 1: evolved organically over the course of centuries, while others were
Speaker 1: the result of design competitions or government decisions. Today, let's
Speaker 1: talk about those origin stories. First up, the dollar sign. Okay,
Speaker 1: the American dollar actually traces its origins to the Spanish peso,
Speaker 1: which Spain adopted in the fourteen hundreds. Formally known as
Speaker 1: the Paso docho or piece of eight, it began circulating
Speaker 1: around the globe via Spain's far flung colonies. After the
Speaker 1: United States was formed, it modeled its new currency after
Speaker 1: the paso. In the US officially adopted the dollar sign
Speaker 1: for its currency. While no one knows it's precie origins,
Speaker 1: the most prominent theory says that it morphed out of
Speaker 1: the written abbreviation for paso, which was P S. Researchers
Speaker 1: theorized someone began combining the two letters, placing the S
Speaker 1: on top of the P, and eventually dropping the curved
Speaker 1: portion of the P the resulting symbol, and S with
Speaker 1: short vertical lines attached to the top and bottom first
Speaker 1: appeared in print after eight But there are actually three
Speaker 1: iterations of the dollar sign, the S with two little
Speaker 1: lines that don't connect through it, or and S with
Speaker 1: one vertical line through it, or and S with two
Speaker 1: vertical lines through it. While the previous theory covers the
Speaker 1: first two symbols, it doesn't quite explain the third version.
Speaker 1: One popular theory was suggested by Iron Rand in her
Speaker 1: novel Atlas Shrug that the double lined version was created
Speaker 1: by using the initials for the United States placing the
Speaker 1: U over the S, but no documented evidence for this existists.
Speaker 1: The double lines may just be a way of making
Speaker 1: the currency signs stand out from the surrounding letters or numbers,
Speaker 1: and double lines are common in many currency symbols. The
Speaker 1: dollar and its sign are currently used by more than
Speaker 1: twenty countries, including Canada, Namibia, and New Zealand. Initials are
Speaker 1: usually added in front of the symbol to let people
Speaker 1: know which currency it refers to, like US dollar sign
Speaker 1: next up the Euro. In twelve, European countries joined together
Speaker 1: to form the European Union or EU, which was officially
Speaker 1: established the following year. The purpose of the EU was
Speaker 1: to enhance cooperation in areas such as citizenship rights and
Speaker 1: foreign policy, and to create a single currency. Over the
Speaker 1: next few years, the European Commission, the executive branch of
Speaker 1: the EU, decided that it's new monetary unit would be
Speaker 1: called the Euro, after Europe. The Euro symbol was derived
Speaker 1: from the Greek letter epsilon, which corresponds to the letter
Speaker 1: E in English and is the first letter in the
Speaker 1: word europe uh. The symbol is an epsilon with two
Speaker 1: lines horizontally through the center instead of one. The two
Speaker 1: parallel lines represent stability. The actual designer of the Euro
Speaker 1: symbol has never been revealed by the European Commission. Though.
Speaker 1: While the Euro is one of the youngest currencies in
Speaker 1: the world, the Indian rupie is one of the oldest,
Speaker 1: as it can be traced back to the sixth century
Speaker 1: b c. E. However, it didn't have a symbol until
Speaker 1: the modern rupee came into existence in fifty when Sultan
Speaker 1: sher Shah Suti created a silver coin named the Rupia
Speaker 1: after the Sanskrit word rupia come meaning ape silver coin.
Speaker 1: The coin kept the same general look until the early
Speaker 1: twentieth century. For most of its years, the rupee was
Speaker 1: denoted by the letters R S or R E. It
Speaker 1: received its symbol after a design contest was held in India.
Speaker 1: A professor of design produced the winning symbol. It incorporates
Speaker 1: elements from both the Roman script and the daven Augury script,
Speaker 1: which is a script used to write many Indian languages.
Speaker 1: Those elements include the daven Augury raw for rupia and
Speaker 1: the Roman are for the English word rupy. It looks
Speaker 1: like a Roman capital are without the vertical line and
Speaker 1: instead with two parallel horizontal lines at the top. These
Speaker 1: lines represent India's tricolor flag and the equal symbol. Several
Speaker 1: other countries used the name Rupy or Rupia for their currencies,
Speaker 1: but they don't use the symbol. And then we have
Speaker 1: the pound sterling. Although the United Kingdom was a founding
Speaker 1: member of the European Union and remained so until it's
Speaker 1: Brexit split, it never adopted the Euro as its currency. Instead,
Speaker 1: it kept its pound sterling, considered the oldest living currency
Speaker 1: in the world. While no one is for certain how
Speaker 1: the term pound sterling originated, most currency experts agree that
Speaker 1: it had some connection to weight and silver. The pound
Speaker 1: came from poundus, the Latin word for weight, and one
Speaker 1: British pound was equal to one pound of silver around
Speaker 1: the eighth century, which was a huge sum. The pound symbol,
Speaker 1: a curved upper case L with a single line horizontally
Speaker 1: through the center, was derived from the Latin L in
Speaker 1: the word libra, which is Latin for scales or balances.
Speaker 1: The pound was adopted as the nation's first currency in
Speaker 1: the first pound coin was minted in fourteen nine, and
Speaker 1: in seventeen seventeen the UK began to value the pounding
Speaker 1: gold rather than sterling silver. Some other countries, mostly former
Speaker 1: British colonies, referred to their own currency as the pound,
Speaker 1: and he's the same symbol like the Egyptian pound and
Speaker 1: the Nigerian pound. As with the dollar, countries at an
Speaker 1: initial to designate the country of origin. Today's episode is
Speaker 1: based on the article the Fascinating Stories behind five of
Speaker 1: the World's big currency symbols on how stuff Works dot com,
Speaker 1: written by Melanie red Zeke McManus. Brain Stuff is production
Speaker 1: of I Heart Radio in partnership with how stuff Works
Speaker 1: dot Com, and it's produced by Tyler Clang. Before more podcasts,
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