WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.040 I want you to do something for me. I want you 00:00:02.040 --> 00:00:05.620 to just picture a keyboard in your mind. Or, 00:00:05.839 --> 00:00:07.540 hey, if you happen to be sitting in front of 00:00:07.540 --> 00:00:09.480 a computer right now, just look down at your 00:00:09.480 --> 00:00:12.380 hands. Right. Find the number four key. Exactly. 00:00:12.779 --> 00:00:16.179 Find the four. Hovering right there, just above 00:00:16.179 --> 00:00:19.910 the number. is a symbol you interact with every 00:00:19.910 --> 00:00:21.989 single day of your life. Oh, absolutely. You 00:00:21.989 --> 00:00:24.530 see it on price tags at the grocery store. You 00:00:24.530 --> 00:00:26.570 type it into spreadsheets at work. You read it 00:00:26.570 --> 00:00:28.929 in headlines, the dollar sign. It just, it feels 00:00:28.929 --> 00:00:31.949 like a fundamental law of the universe. Yeah, 00:00:32.049 --> 00:00:34.689 like gravity or, you know, the fact that water 00:00:34.689 --> 00:00:37.670 is wet. Right. It just seems like a fixed, absolute 00:00:37.670 --> 00:00:40.509 truth that has literally always existed in its 00:00:40.509 --> 00:00:42.479 current form. We certainly treat it that way. 00:00:42.560 --> 00:00:44.659 I mean, human beings rely on visual anchors, 00:00:44.700 --> 00:00:47.320 and we prefer everyday symbols to feel, well, 00:00:47.600 --> 00:00:50.299 absolute and permanent. But the reality of this 00:00:50.299 --> 00:00:53.659 particular shape is far more fluid. It is essentially 00:00:53.659 --> 00:00:56.399 this historical shapeshifter that has reinvented 00:00:56.399 --> 00:00:59.509 itself multiple times over centuries. And that 00:00:59.509 --> 00:01:02.350 is exactly our mission for this deep dive. We 00:01:02.350 --> 00:01:05.189 are taking a really comprehensive sack of source 00:01:05.189 --> 00:01:07.010 material detailing the history of the dollar 00:01:07.010 --> 00:01:09.489 sign, and we are going to trace its mysterious 00:01:09.489 --> 00:01:13.989 origins, its rather messy global evolution, and 00:01:13.989 --> 00:01:16.590 its completely bizarre afterlife in the digital 00:01:16.590 --> 00:01:19.090 age. Because it turns out almost everything we 00:01:19.090 --> 00:01:22.819 assume about this simple stroke of ink is completely 00:01:22.819 --> 00:01:26.060 factually incorrect. It really is. It's a brilliant 00:01:26.060 --> 00:01:29.219 case study in how human error, lazy handwriting, 00:01:29.799 --> 00:01:32.079 and the mechanical limitations of early machines 00:01:32.079 --> 00:01:35.000 just they ended up accidentally dictating global 00:01:35.000 --> 00:01:37.019 standards. Yeah, the evolution of the symbol 00:01:37.019 --> 00:01:39.939 really strips away that illusion of grand intentional 00:01:39.939 --> 00:01:42.159 design. We always assume that the foundational 00:01:42.159 --> 00:01:45.099 icons of our society were created by like a committee 00:01:45.099 --> 00:01:47.560 of geniuses in a boardroom. Right. When the truth 00:01:47.560 --> 00:01:50.159 is usually much more chaotic and practical. OK, 00:01:50.159 --> 00:01:52.680 let's unpack this by starting with what is probably 00:01:52.680 --> 00:01:55.799 the most pervasive myth of all. If I were to 00:01:55.799 --> 00:01:58.239 walk outside right now, stop someone on the street 00:01:58.239 --> 00:02:00.500 and ask them, hey, where's a dollar sign come 00:02:00.500 --> 00:02:03.439 from? I would bet actual money that nine out 00:02:03.439 --> 00:02:05.459 of 10 people are going to confidently tell me 00:02:05.459 --> 00:02:08.159 it stands for the United States. Which is a perfectly 00:02:08.159 --> 00:02:10.939 logical assumption to make today. I mean, given 00:02:10.939 --> 00:02:13.560 the symbols heavy cultural association with American 00:02:13.560 --> 00:02:16.159 finance and global capitalism. The narrative 00:02:16.159 --> 00:02:18.759 you hear everywhere is that the symbol is just 00:02:18.759 --> 00:02:21.629 a monogram. You know, you take a narrow capitalized 00:02:21.629 --> 00:02:24.590 letter U and you superimpose it directly over 00:02:24.590 --> 00:02:26.469 a capital letter S. Right, and then you just 00:02:26.469 --> 00:02:29.330 erase the bottom curve of the U. Exactly. And 00:02:29.330 --> 00:02:31.870 then you are left with an S that has two vertical 00:02:31.870 --> 00:02:34.889 lines running through it. It is incredibly neat 00:02:34.889 --> 00:02:37.289 and tidy. It was even championed by the author 00:02:37.289 --> 00:02:40.090 Anne Rand. Oh, right, in her novel. Yeah, in 00:02:40.090 --> 00:02:43.449 her 1957 novel Atlas Shrugged. She explicitly 00:02:43.449 --> 00:02:45.409 claimed that this U .S. monogram was stamped 00:02:45.409 --> 00:02:47.669 right onto the money bags used by the United 00:02:47.669 --> 00:02:50.909 States Mint. She elevated it to this grand symbol 00:02:50.909 --> 00:02:53.949 of the American free enterprise system. It is 00:02:53.949 --> 00:02:57.250 a beautifully constructed narrative and it really 00:02:57.250 --> 00:02:59.930 appeals to a sense of national identity. For 00:02:59.930 --> 00:03:02.550 sure. The only problem is that the historical 00:03:02.550 --> 00:03:05.710 timeline completely shatters it. The documentary 00:03:05.710 --> 00:03:07.770 evidence shows that the symbol was in active 00:03:07.770 --> 00:03:10.629 use well before the United States of America 00:03:10.629 --> 00:03:14.090 was even an idea. Let alone a functioning sovereign 00:03:14.090 --> 00:03:17.990 nation. Exactly. learning this was honestly like 00:03:17.990 --> 00:03:20.870 finding out apple pie was actually invented in 00:03:20.870 --> 00:03:23.770 ancient Greece or something. You think you understand 00:03:23.770 --> 00:03:25.990 the core DNA of something and then you realize 00:03:25.990 --> 00:03:28.550 it predates the very country it's supposedly 00:03:28.550 --> 00:03:31.030 named after. Yeah. So if it doesn't stand for 00:03:31.030 --> 00:03:33.449 the United States, what currency were people 00:03:33.449 --> 00:03:35.250 actually talking about when they wrote it down? 00:03:35.569 --> 00:03:38.129 They were actually referring to the Spanish -American 00:03:38.129 --> 00:03:40.979 peso. The peso. Right. If we look at business 00:03:40.979 --> 00:03:42.840 correspondence from the West Indies dating back 00:03:42.840 --> 00:03:45.879 to the 1770s, we see the symbol appearing in 00:03:45.879 --> 00:03:49.099 manuscript ledgers. During this era, the Spanish 00:03:49.099 --> 00:03:51.500 peso, which is, you know, often remembered in 00:03:51.500 --> 00:03:53.939 popular culture as the piece of eight from pirate 00:03:53.939 --> 00:03:56.180 lore. Oh, like the pirate coins. Exactly. That 00:03:56.180 --> 00:03:58.300 was effectively the global reserve currency at 00:03:58.300 --> 00:04:00.240 the time. OK, wait, let me make sure I understand 00:04:00.240 --> 00:04:03.639 the mechanics of that. Why was a Spanish coin 00:04:03.639 --> 00:04:06.219 the default currency in North America? Didn't 00:04:06.219 --> 00:04:08.370 the early colonies have their own money? Well, 00:04:08.370 --> 00:04:10.909 they had various local currencies, but they were 00:04:10.909 --> 00:04:13.610 often unreliable or they just lacked intrinsic 00:04:13.610 --> 00:04:16.470 value. The Spanish Empire, on the other hand, 00:04:16.629 --> 00:04:18.829 controlled these massive silver mines in places 00:04:18.829 --> 00:04:21.790 like Bolivia and Mexico. They were churning out 00:04:21.790 --> 00:04:24.670 millions of these highly consistent pure silver 00:04:24.670 --> 00:04:27.670 coins. And because the silver content was so 00:04:27.670 --> 00:04:30.129 reliable, merchants all over the world trusted 00:04:30.129 --> 00:04:32.870 them. That makes sense. So when the United States 00:04:32.870 --> 00:04:35.470 finally formed and passed the Coinage Act in 00:04:35.470 --> 00:04:39.160 1792 to create its own money, Congress literally 00:04:39.160 --> 00:04:41.800 defined the value of the new U .S. dollar by 00:04:41.800 --> 00:04:44.420 matching it to the exact weight and pure slimmer 00:04:44.420 --> 00:04:47.300 content of a Spanish milled dollar. So the early 00:04:47.300 --> 00:04:49.800 U .S. economy was essentially just piggybacking 00:04:49.800 --> 00:04:51.660 on the credibility of Spanish silver. Pretty 00:04:51.660 --> 00:04:53.759 much. We were just rebranding their math. That 00:04:53.759 --> 00:04:55.860 is a highly accurate way to put it. In fact, 00:04:56.339 --> 00:04:58.519 physical foreign coins, particularly those Spanish 00:04:58.519 --> 00:05:01.459 pesos, remained legal tender in the United States 00:05:01.459 --> 00:05:06.389 all the way until 1857. Wait, 1857. Yes. People 00:05:06.389 --> 00:05:09.949 were actively using foreign silver to buy groceries 00:05:09.949 --> 00:05:12.470 in New York and Philadelphia more than half a 00:05:12.470 --> 00:05:16.170 century after independence. Wow. That completely 00:05:16.170 --> 00:05:18.310 recontextualizes the whole U .S. mint theory. 00:05:18.769 --> 00:05:20.589 I mean, if we were using Spanish coins, then 00:05:20.589 --> 00:05:23.029 the earliest U .S. dollar coins probably didn't 00:05:23.029 --> 00:05:24.750 even have the dollar symbol stamped on them at 00:05:24.750 --> 00:05:27.930 all. They absolutely did not. The first verified 00:05:27.930 --> 00:05:30.430 occurrence of the symbol appearing in print as 00:05:30.430 --> 00:05:32.990 opposed to, you know, handwritten letters wasn't 00:05:32.990 --> 00:05:36.449 until the 1790s. OK. It was produced by a Philadelphia 00:05:36.449 --> 00:05:39.250 typeface founder named Archibald Binney. And 00:05:39.250 --> 00:05:41.610 you do not see the symbol heavily integrated 00:05:41.610 --> 00:05:43.870 into federal paper money until much later. How 00:05:43.870 --> 00:05:47.420 much later? Well, there is an 1869 US note, often 00:05:47.420 --> 00:05:50.699 called a greenback, that features a large U overlapping 00:05:50.699 --> 00:05:52.819 an S in a way that looks like a single bar dollar 00:05:52.819 --> 00:05:55.639 sign. But by 1869, the symbol had already been 00:05:55.639 --> 00:05:57.980 functioning in global commerce for nearly a century. 00:05:58.220 --> 00:06:00.319 So the US theory is completely off the table. 00:06:00.420 --> 00:06:03.220 It is just a myth retrofitted onto history. We 00:06:03.220 --> 00:06:05.339 were talking about the Spanish peso. But I mean, 00:06:05.540 --> 00:06:07.399 that just replaces one mystery with another. 00:06:07.970 --> 00:06:11.410 If the currency is a peso, how do a P and an 00:06:11.410 --> 00:06:14.430 S visually transform into an S struck through 00:06:14.430 --> 00:06:16.670 with a vertical line? Yeah, that is the central 00:06:16.670 --> 00:06:19.110 debate among historians who study paleography. 00:06:19.189 --> 00:06:21.290 Paleography. Right, which is the study of historical 00:06:21.290 --> 00:06:25.550 handwriting. There are two major fiercely competing 00:06:25.550 --> 00:06:29.399 hypotheses to explain this. visual leap. I am 00:06:29.399 --> 00:06:31.899 so fascinated by the first one, which seems to 00:06:31.899 --> 00:06:34.540 basically boil down to sheer human fatigue. Let's 00:06:34.540 --> 00:06:37.040 call it the lazy scribe theory. The lazy scribe 00:06:37.040 --> 00:06:39.300 theory. Because we really have to visualize the 00:06:39.300 --> 00:06:41.680 reality of 18th century commerce. There are no 00:06:41.680 --> 00:06:44.259 Excel spreadsheets. No. Merchants and clerks 00:06:44.259 --> 00:06:46.879 are sitting at wooden desks by candlelight writing 00:06:46.879 --> 00:06:49.699 out massive financial ledgers by hand with quill 00:06:49.699 --> 00:06:52.360 and ink. Use exhausting work. Right. And the 00:06:52.360 --> 00:06:54.879 source material highlights this wealthy Irish 00:06:54.879 --> 00:06:57.670 trader named Oliver Pollock. who was actually 00:06:57.670 --> 00:07:00.069 a major financial backer of the American Revolution. 00:07:00.750 --> 00:07:04.110 In a ledger from 1778, he uses a standard abbreviation 00:07:04.110 --> 00:07:07.029 for pesos. He writes a lowercase P and right 00:07:07.029 --> 00:07:09.930 next to it, a superscript lowercase S to indicate 00:07:09.930 --> 00:07:12.889 the plural. Which is a very standard Latinate 00:07:12.889 --> 00:07:15.670 scribal abbreviation. You write the primary letter 00:07:15.670 --> 00:07:18.209 and float the plural modifier above and to the 00:07:18.209 --> 00:07:22.350 right. But imagine writing PS, PS, PS thousands 00:07:22.350 --> 00:07:25.259 of times a week. The scribes naturally just start 00:07:25.259 --> 00:07:27.819 taking shortcuts to save their hands. Naturally. 00:07:28.220 --> 00:07:31.180 So the superscript S gradually starts drifting 00:07:31.180 --> 00:07:33.540 over to the left. Eventually they stop writing 00:07:33.540 --> 00:07:36.240 them side by side altogether and just start drawing 00:07:36.240 --> 00:07:39.199 the S directly on top of the P. And as they do 00:07:39.199 --> 00:07:41.819 this quickly, the round loop of the P gets lost 00:07:41.819 --> 00:07:44.399 within the curves of the S. Exactly. All that 00:07:44.399 --> 00:07:47.620 survives of the original P is that long downward 00:07:47.620 --> 00:07:49.839 vertical stroke piercing straight through the 00:07:49.839 --> 00:07:52.319 center of the S. And the paleographic evidence 00:07:52.319 --> 00:07:55.019 for this is incredibly strong. When researchers 00:07:55.019 --> 00:07:57.360 study manuscripts from the late 18th and early 00:07:57.360 --> 00:08:00.300 19th centuries, you can literally watch the visual 00:08:00.300 --> 00:08:03.060 evolution happen in slow motion across different 00:08:03.060 --> 00:08:05.279 ledgers. That is so cool. You see the letters 00:08:05.279 --> 00:08:08.000 merge and simplify over decades until the modern 00:08:07.819 --> 00:08:11.000 dollar sign emerges. But what's fascinating here 00:08:11.000 --> 00:08:13.639 is that there is a completely different highly 00:08:13.639 --> 00:08:16.720 majestic theory that challenges the scribes entirely. 00:08:17.019 --> 00:08:18.959 Wait you're referring to the classical architecture 00:08:18.959 --> 00:08:22.220 theory right? I am. I have to admit when I first 00:08:22.220 --> 00:08:25.350 read that the symbol for modern consumerism might 00:08:25.350 --> 00:08:27.850 come from an ancient Greek myth about the Strait 00:08:27.850 --> 00:08:30.230 of Gibraltar, it sounded like a massive stretch. 00:08:30.449 --> 00:08:32.690 I know, it sounds totally mythological, but it's 00:08:32.690 --> 00:08:35.590 actually grounded in hard physical evidence. 00:08:35.769 --> 00:08:38.389 Okay, lay on me. So, in classical antiquity, 00:08:38.789 --> 00:08:41.330 the Pillars of Hercules were the mythological 00:08:41.330 --> 00:08:44.029 name given to the promontories that flanked the 00:08:44.029 --> 00:08:47.049 entrance to the Strait of Gibraltar. Now, visualize 00:08:47.049 --> 00:08:49.970 the Spanish coat of arms. It prominently features 00:08:49.970 --> 00:08:53.049 these two classical pillars. Okay. And wrapped 00:08:53.049 --> 00:08:55.649 around those two pillars in a winding S -shaped 00:08:55.649 --> 00:08:59.230 curve is a ribbon bearing the Latin motto plus 00:08:59.230 --> 00:09:02.669 ultra, which means further beyond. Oh, wow. So 00:09:02.669 --> 00:09:05.129 visually, you literally have two distinct vertical 00:09:05.129 --> 00:09:08.590 lines, the pillars, and a flowing S -shape wrapping 00:09:08.590 --> 00:09:11.009 around them. Exactly. That is literally a two 00:09:11.009 --> 00:09:12.990 -stroke dollar sign. It is. And this wasn't just 00:09:12.990 --> 00:09:15.850 some hidden royal emblem. This specific design 00:09:15.850 --> 00:09:18.490 was stamped heavily onto the real Dioccio. The 00:09:18.490 --> 00:09:21.500 silver coins. Right, the silver coins minted 00:09:21.500 --> 00:09:24.279 at the massive Spanish Mint in Potosi, Bolivia 00:09:24.279 --> 00:09:28.960 between 1573 and 1825. These coins were carried 00:09:28.960 --> 00:09:32.039 on ships to every corner of the globe. They were 00:09:32.039 --> 00:09:34.539 so universally recognized that during the Qing 00:09:34.539 --> 00:09:37.879 dynasty in China, merchants had a specific name 00:09:37.879 --> 00:09:39.500 for them. Really? What did they call them? They 00:09:39.500 --> 00:09:42.159 called them Shuangzu, which translates directly 00:09:42.159 --> 00:09:44.460 to double pillar. OK, I see the logic now. I 00:09:44.460 --> 00:09:48.320 mean, if you are a trader in the 1700s and you 00:09:48.320 --> 00:09:51.000 need a shorthand symbol for this specific silver 00:09:51.000 --> 00:09:53.559 coin, you don't invent a new abstract shape. 00:09:53.980 --> 00:09:56.299 You just draw a tiny quick doodle of the most 00:09:56.330 --> 00:09:58.970 recognizable feature on the coin itself, the 00:09:58.970 --> 00:10:01.269 two pillars and the ribbon. Right. Makes perfect 00:10:01.269 --> 00:10:03.389 sense. Are there any other credible explanations 00:10:03.389 --> 00:10:05.669 out there? Well, there are a few niche theories 00:10:05.669 --> 00:10:08.470 that hold varying degrees of water. One variant 00:10:08.470 --> 00:10:10.950 of the Potosi theory focuses on the mint mark 00:10:10.950 --> 00:10:13.750 itself. The assayer's mark on those Bolivian 00:10:13.750 --> 00:10:16.730 coins consisted of the letters P, T, S, and I, 00:10:17.049 --> 00:10:19.250 all superimposed on top of each other into a 00:10:19.250 --> 00:10:22.129 single complex monogram. If you isolate the core 00:10:22.129 --> 00:10:24.809 of that monogram, it heavily resembles a single 00:10:24.809 --> 00:10:27.090 -stroke dollar sign. That's a clever mechanical 00:10:27.090 --> 00:10:29.129 explanation, though maybe a bit less visually 00:10:29.129 --> 00:10:32.899 obvious than the pillars. I also noticed a theory 00:10:32.899 --> 00:10:35.200 about the word dollar itself having German roots. 00:10:35.860 --> 00:10:38.519 Yes, the English word dollar is derived from 00:10:38.519 --> 00:10:41.539 the German thaler, which was a large silver coin 00:10:41.539 --> 00:10:45.100 heavily used across Europe. One hypothesis suggests 00:10:45.100 --> 00:10:47.860 the symbol comes from superimposing an S and 00:10:47.860 --> 00:10:51.519 an I or a J to denote that specific German coin. 00:10:52.189 --> 00:10:55.590 There is even an accounting book from 1686 by 00:10:55.590 --> 00:10:58.769 a man named John Collins that utilizes a symbol 00:10:58.769 --> 00:11:01.509 looking suspiciously like a dollar sign to represent 00:11:01.509 --> 00:11:04.110 the Fowler. Wow. So it seems like multiple cultures 00:11:04.110 --> 00:11:07.149 were kind of racing toward the same visual shorthand 00:11:07.149 --> 00:11:09.230 simultaneously. It really does. But we should 00:11:09.230 --> 00:11:11.070 probably also clear the air on some of the darker, 00:11:11.350 --> 00:11:13.090 more dramatic theories that get passed around 00:11:13.090 --> 00:11:15.309 the internet. Oh, absolutely. It is critical 00:11:15.309 --> 00:11:17.990 to rely on documentary evidence here, which firmly 00:11:17.990 --> 00:11:20.450 discredits several sensational claims. For instance, 00:11:20.450 --> 00:11:22.580 there is a very persistent rumor that Spanish 00:11:22.580 --> 00:11:24.940 slave captors branded enslaved people with a 00:11:24.940 --> 00:11:27.899 symbol combining an S and a nail. Because nail 00:11:27.899 --> 00:11:31.240 is clavo in Spanish. Right, creating a visual 00:11:31.240 --> 00:11:34.460 pun for esclavo, meaning slave. There is another 00:11:34.460 --> 00:11:36.679 narrative in Portuguese -speaking regions that 00:11:36.679 --> 00:11:39.519 claims the S represents the winding serpentine 00:11:39.519 --> 00:11:42.419 path of an eighth -century Umayyad Caliphate 00:11:42.419 --> 00:11:45.320 general crossing the Visigoth kingdom with the 00:11:45.320 --> 00:11:47.379 two vertical strokes representing the physical 00:11:47.379 --> 00:11:50.500 pillars of Hercules he crossed. So are those 00:11:50.500 --> 00:11:54.279 legit? No, both of these theories lack any contemporary 00:11:54.279 --> 00:11:56.879 manuscript evidence and are generally dismissed 00:11:56.879 --> 00:11:59.980 by historians as retroactive myths. Okay, so 00:11:59.980 --> 00:12:03.220 the real battle is basically between the tired 00:12:03.440 --> 00:12:06.419 ink -stained hands of colonial accountants, and 00:12:06.419 --> 00:12:09.879 a tiny dundle of global silver currency. Exactly. 00:12:10.139 --> 00:12:13.039 Regardless of who drew it first, the symbol absolutely 00:12:13.039 --> 00:12:14.980 exploded. It became this universal grammar of 00:12:14.980 --> 00:12:17.779 money. But what I find so deeply illogical is 00:12:17.779 --> 00:12:19.759 that this grammar doesn't follow its own rules. 00:12:19.919 --> 00:12:21.940 How do you mean? Well, in places like the United 00:12:21.940 --> 00:12:24.639 States, Australia, New Zealand, we accept a bizarre 00:12:24.639 --> 00:12:26.840 linguistic disconnect every single day without 00:12:26.840 --> 00:12:29.320 thinking about it. Ah, the physical placement 00:12:29.320 --> 00:12:32.450 of the symbol relative to the numbers. Yes. If 00:12:32.450 --> 00:12:35.649 I buy a coffee that costs $5, I write the symbol 00:12:35.649 --> 00:12:39.169 before the number, $5. But I don't walk into 00:12:39.169 --> 00:12:42.029 the cafe and say, I would like a coffee, here's 00:12:42.029 --> 00:12:44.990 $5. Right. I read it out loud after the number 00:12:44.990 --> 00:12:47.889 $5. It is completely backwards. And to make it 00:12:47.889 --> 00:12:50.470 even worse, we don't even apply that bad logic 00:12:50.470 --> 00:12:52.649 consistently. No, we don't. If something costs 00:12:52.649 --> 00:12:55.809 25 cents, we write the number 25 and then put 00:12:55.809 --> 00:12:57.509 the little c with a line through it after the 00:12:57.509 --> 00:13:01.320 number. It is a profound structural inconsistency. 00:13:01.580 --> 00:13:03.700 You are encountering a symbol that functions 00:13:03.700 --> 00:13:06.179 ideographically. You know, it conveys the concept 00:13:06.179 --> 00:13:08.259 of the currency before you process the quantity, 00:13:08.720 --> 00:13:11.399 but it clashes completely with the phonetic rules 00:13:11.399 --> 00:13:13.940 of spoken English. I have to give massive credit 00:13:13.940 --> 00:13:16.879 to French -speaking Canada here. Oh, yes. The 00:13:16.879 --> 00:13:18.700 sources point out that they just bypass this 00:13:18.700 --> 00:13:20.559 nonsense entirely. They write it exactly the 00:13:20.559 --> 00:13:23.259 way it comes out of the mouth. Five, space, dollar 00:13:23.259 --> 00:13:26.879 sign. Six dollars. It is... vastly superior logic. 00:13:27.179 --> 00:13:29.480 It is certainly cleaner linguistically, but if 00:13:29.480 --> 00:13:32.580 we are evaluating the clever utilitarian application 00:13:32.580 --> 00:13:34.980 of the symbol, we really have to look closely 00:13:34.980 --> 00:13:37.279 at the Portuguese Empire. Okay, yeah. They adopted 00:13:37.279 --> 00:13:40.159 a specific two -stroke variant of the sign which 00:13:40.159 --> 00:13:43.419 earned its own unique name. The Saffron. The 00:13:43.419 --> 00:13:45.620 Saffron. I genuinely love how that sounds. It 00:13:45.620 --> 00:13:48.220 gives the symbol a sense of weight. And its mechanical 00:13:48.220 --> 00:13:51.019 usage was brilliant. In Portugal and Brazil, 00:13:51.100 --> 00:13:53.899 dating back to at least 1775, they didn't just 00:13:53.899 --> 00:13:55.899 slap the Saffron at the beginning or the end 00:13:55.899 --> 00:13:58.240 of a number to say this is money. They actually 00:13:58.240 --> 00:14:01.320 physically embedded it inside the number itself 00:14:01.320 --> 00:14:04.200 to act as a thousand separator or a decimal point. 00:14:04.299 --> 00:14:05.919 Wait, let me picture that. So instead of writing 00:14:05.919 --> 00:14:08.600 123, dropping a decimal point and then writing 00:14:08.600 --> 00:14:12.429 500. They would write 123, then the Saffron itself, 00:14:12.509 --> 00:14:16.230 then 500. Oh, wow. It seamlessly integrated the 00:14:16.230 --> 00:14:18.909 currency identifier and the mathematical separator 00:14:18.909 --> 00:14:22.289 into a single elegant keystroke. That is so smart. 00:14:22.350 --> 00:14:24.470 And from a ledger security standpoint, it was 00:14:24.470 --> 00:14:27.470 fantastic because it made it incredibly difficult 00:14:27.470 --> 00:14:30.009 for a forger to sneak an extra zero onto the 00:14:30.009 --> 00:14:31.750 end of a handwritten sum. Oh, because the symbol 00:14:31.750 --> 00:14:34.870 is locking the decimal place. Exactly. Portugal 00:14:34.870 --> 00:14:37.149 used this system with their old currency, the 00:14:37.149 --> 00:14:39.980 real, and later the escudo. all the way until 00:14:39.980 --> 00:14:42.799 2002 when they adopted the euro. Brazil used 00:14:42.799 --> 00:14:46.639 it until 1942. And Cape Verde, a former Portuguese 00:14:46.639 --> 00:14:49.039 colony, still actively retains the Saffron as 00:14:49.039 --> 00:14:51.620 a decimal separator to this very day. That is 00:14:51.620 --> 00:14:54.299 just phenomenal UI design for an 18th century 00:14:54.299 --> 00:14:56.279 piece of paper. You sold two problems with one 00:14:56.279 --> 00:14:58.940 shape. Yeah. But unfortunately, that brilliant 00:14:58.940 --> 00:15:01.659 utility makes the next part of our research incredibly 00:15:01.659 --> 00:15:03.940 frustrating. Because of how our modern computers 00:15:03.940 --> 00:15:06.259 were designed, the Saffron has essentially been 00:15:06.259 --> 00:15:08.990 erased from existence. Yes, we are talking about 00:15:08.990 --> 00:15:10.970 the phenomenon of digital flattening. This was 00:15:10.970 --> 00:15:13.409 primarily driven by the Unicode specification. 00:15:14.029 --> 00:15:16.350 Unicode is the universal computing standard that 00:15:16.350 --> 00:15:18.929 dictates how text is encoded and displayed across 00:15:18.929 --> 00:15:21.409 every device on earth. Right. And in that system, 00:15:21.490 --> 00:15:23.909 the dollar sign is assigned the code point U 00:15:23.909 --> 00:15:27.509 plus 00024. And Unicode refuses to give the cipher 00:15:27.509 --> 00:15:29.149 around its own slot, right? They just lump it 00:15:29.149 --> 00:15:33.889 under U plus 0024. But why? I mean, if Kate Verde 00:15:33.889 --> 00:15:36.450 is still using it as an official decimal separator, 00:15:36.750 --> 00:15:39.049 Why wouldn't computers recognize it as a distinct 00:15:39.049 --> 00:15:41.809 character? Well, to understand why, we have to 00:15:41.809 --> 00:15:44.450 look back at the rigid constraints of early computing 00:15:44.450 --> 00:15:48.470 in the 1960s. Before Unicode, there was ASCII, 00:15:48.769 --> 00:15:51.409 the American Standard Code for Information Interchange. 00:15:52.070 --> 00:15:54.470 Early computers had incredibly limited memory. 00:15:55.110 --> 00:15:57.870 ASCII was a 7 -bit system, meaning it only had 00:15:57.870 --> 00:16:02.669 room for exactly 128 characters. Wow, 128. Every 00:16:02.669 --> 00:16:05.740 single slot was precious real estate. Absolutely. 00:16:05.840 --> 00:16:07.720 They couldn't afford to waste a slot on a two 00:16:07.720 --> 00:16:09.639 -stroke variant of a symbol that already existed 00:16:09.639 --> 00:16:12.340 in the one -stroke form. So the engineers just 00:16:12.340 --> 00:16:14.379 decreed that the one -stroke dollar sign and 00:16:14.379 --> 00:16:16.740 the two -stroke saffron were conceptually identical. 00:16:16.960 --> 00:16:19.500 So they treated a distinct cultural symbol like 00:16:19.500 --> 00:16:21.919 it was just a font choice, like deciding between 00:16:21.919 --> 00:16:24.559 Ariel and Times New Roman? Precisely. And that 00:16:24.559 --> 00:16:27.080 legacy constraint carried over into modern Unicode. 00:16:27.440 --> 00:16:29.440 If you are in Cape Verde right now trying to 00:16:29.440 --> 00:16:31.480 type out a formal financial document with a true 00:16:31.480 --> 00:16:34.059 saffron, you are entirely at the mercy of the 00:16:34.059 --> 00:16:35.929 typeface. installed on the recipient's computer. 00:16:36.269 --> 00:16:38.570 You might type a double bar on your screen, but 00:16:38.570 --> 00:16:40.710 the person who opens your email might only see 00:16:40.710 --> 00:16:44.029 a single bar. There have been formal, passionate 00:16:44.029 --> 00:16:46.409 requests submitted to the Unicode Consortium 00:16:46.409 --> 00:16:49.309 to give the Saffron its own distinct code point. 00:16:49.889 --> 00:16:52.289 But as of the latest documentation, it remains 00:16:52.289 --> 00:16:55.919 stripped of its unique digital identity. It is 00:16:55.919 --> 00:16:58.580 amazing how a memory saving shortcut from the 00:16:58.580 --> 00:17:02.440 1960s is still dictating how an entire country 00:17:02.440 --> 00:17:05.240 writes its money today. It really is. But that 00:17:05.240 --> 00:17:07.759 structural limitation in early computing actually 00:17:07.759 --> 00:17:09.400 explains something else I've always wondered 00:17:09.400 --> 00:17:11.900 about. Here's where it gets really interesting. 00:17:12.720 --> 00:17:15.059 Because the dollar sign was forced onto these 00:17:15.059 --> 00:17:17.359 early limited keyboards for American accounting 00:17:17.359 --> 00:17:20.119 software, It ended up being completely hijacked 00:17:20.119 --> 00:17:22.319 by computer programmers. It really did. It became 00:17:22.319 --> 00:17:24.619 an empty vessel. Exactly. Think about it. If 00:17:24.619 --> 00:17:27.160 you are a programmer in the 1970s writing code, 00:17:27.680 --> 00:17:30.099 you need symbols to act as commands. You look 00:17:30.099 --> 00:17:32.539 at your keyboard. You can't use letters or numbers 00:17:32.539 --> 00:17:35.200 because those are used for actual data. But right 00:17:35.200 --> 00:17:37.240 there above the four key is the dollar sign. 00:17:37.400 --> 00:17:39.640 Right there waiting. It's easily accessible, 00:17:39.799 --> 00:17:42.460 but it's almost never used in standard English 00:17:42.460 --> 00:17:44.839 sentences unless you're literally talking about 00:17:44.839 --> 00:17:47.480 prices. It basically became the duct tape of 00:17:47.480 --> 00:17:49.839 the digital world grabbed in a pinch because 00:17:49.839 --> 00:17:52.380 it was lying around and now it's holding everything 00:17:52.380 --> 00:17:55.180 together. That is a perfect analogy. It was a 00:17:55.180 --> 00:17:57.859 purely mechanical utility stripped of its financial 00:17:57.859 --> 00:18:01.180 meaning. For example, in the CPM operating system, 00:18:01.799 --> 00:18:04.500 and later in all iterations of Microsoft's MS 00:18:04.500 --> 00:18:07.819 -DOS, the foundational developer Gary Kildall 00:18:07.819 --> 00:18:11.160 used the dollar sign as the hidden, hard -coded 00:18:11.160 --> 00:18:13.759 marker for the end of text in a string. And the 00:18:13.759 --> 00:18:15.779 most amusing part is that Kildall never publicly 00:18:15.779 --> 00:18:17.819 explained why he chose it over any other symbol. 00:18:18.059 --> 00:18:20.450 Right. He famously joked that he knew the secret 00:18:20.450 --> 00:18:22.549 reason, but Bill Gates didn't. It was likely 00:18:22.549 --> 00:18:24.670 an inherited trait from even earlier computing 00:18:24.670 --> 00:18:26.990 systems that used the dollar sign to visually 00:18:26.990 --> 00:18:29.170 confirm that a user had pressed the escape key. 00:18:29.730 --> 00:18:32.710 But once the dam broke, its non -monetary uses 00:18:32.710 --> 00:18:35.460 multiplied exponentially. Oh, for sure. If you 00:18:35.460 --> 00:18:37.599 are operating a Windows network right now, you 00:18:37.599 --> 00:18:40.579 can append a dollar sign to the absolute end 00:18:40.579 --> 00:18:43.160 of a shared folder's name, and that folder will 00:18:43.160 --> 00:18:45.319 instantly become invisible to anyone casually 00:18:45.319 --> 00:18:47.859 browsing the network. It functions as a cloak 00:18:47.859 --> 00:18:50.339 to hide resources. That's wild. So it goes from 00:18:50.339 --> 00:18:53.099 being a literal symbol of conspicuous wealth, 00:18:53.640 --> 00:18:56.299 a marker of Spanish silver and American capitalism, 00:18:57.079 --> 00:19:00.779 to a digital cloak of invisibility. In programming 00:19:00.779 --> 00:19:03.359 languages like PHP, it's used to define variables. 00:19:03.900 --> 00:19:06.420 In Microsoft Excel, if you place a dollar sign 00:19:06.420 --> 00:19:09.259 before a row or column letter, it creates an 00:19:09.259 --> 00:19:11.299 absolute cell reference locking that data in 00:19:11.299 --> 00:19:13.980 place so it refuses to shift when you drag a 00:19:13.980 --> 00:19:16.539 formula across the screen. Its utility is just 00:19:16.539 --> 00:19:18.640 endless. But if we connect this to the bigger 00:19:18.640 --> 00:19:21.319 picture, the absolute furthest the symbol has 00:19:21.319 --> 00:19:23.380 traveled from its financial origins is in the 00:19:23.380 --> 00:19:27.039 realm of nuclear physics. Yes. This blew my mind. 00:19:27.480 --> 00:19:29.140 The source material casually mentions that in 00:19:29.140 --> 00:19:31.339 the nuclear reactor, a dollar is an actual unit 00:19:31.339 --> 00:19:33.660 of measurement. Wait, if physicists are calling 00:19:33.660 --> 00:19:35.799 it a dollar, does that mean they view nuclear 00:19:35.799 --> 00:19:37.619 reactivity like a budget? Like you only have 00:19:37.619 --> 00:19:40.019 so much energy to spend before going broke. Well, 00:19:40.059 --> 00:19:42.500 not quite a budget, but rather a measurement 00:19:42.500 --> 00:19:45.819 of a critical time threshold. It has to do with 00:19:45.819 --> 00:19:48.440 the mechanism of how a nuclear chain reaction 00:19:48.440 --> 00:19:51.359 is paced. OK, unpack that for me. In a reactor, 00:19:51.779 --> 00:19:54.380 atoms split and release neutrons. Most of these 00:19:54.380 --> 00:19:56.740 are prompt neutrons, which are released instantly. 00:19:57.109 --> 00:20:00.309 If a reactor relied solely on prompt neutrons, 00:20:00.609 --> 00:20:03.089 the chain reaction would multiply so fast that 00:20:03.089 --> 00:20:05.509 humans couldn't possibly react in time to control 00:20:05.509 --> 00:20:09.109 it. So how do we control it? We rely on a tiny 00:20:09.109 --> 00:20:11.509 fraction of neutrons called delayed neutrons. 00:20:11.750 --> 00:20:13.549 These are released fractions of a second later. 00:20:14.250 --> 00:20:16.690 That microscopic delay provides just enough of 00:20:16.690 --> 00:20:19.250 a time buffer for mechanical systems to insert 00:20:19.250 --> 00:20:21.789 or withdraw control rods to keep the reaction 00:20:21.789 --> 00:20:23.910 stable. Okay, so delayed neutrons are essentially 00:20:23.910 --> 00:20:26.369 the brakes on the car. Where does the dollar 00:20:26.369 --> 00:20:28.940 sign come in? The dollar measures the margin 00:20:28.940 --> 00:20:31.559 between those two states. If a reactor is operating 00:20:31.559 --> 00:20:33.859 normally, it is in a state of slow controlled 00:20:33.859 --> 00:20:36.579 criticality. We can call that zero dollars. But 00:20:36.579 --> 00:20:38.900 if the reactivity increases to the point where 00:20:38.900 --> 00:20:41.279 it no longer needs those delayed neutrons to 00:20:41.279 --> 00:20:43.940 sustain the chain reaction, meaning it is driven 00:20:43.940 --> 00:20:46.859 entirely by the instantaneous prompt neutrons, 00:20:47.380 --> 00:20:49.880 that exact threshold is defined as one dollar. 00:20:49.960 --> 00:20:52.440 So if you hit one dollar, you have completely 00:20:52.440 --> 00:20:55.319 lost your time buffer. The brakes are gone. Precisely. 00:20:55.450 --> 00:20:58.049 Crossing the $1 threshold means the reactor has 00:20:58.049 --> 00:21:01.049 achieved prompt criticality. The power level 00:21:01.049 --> 00:21:03.869 will spike exponentially in milliseconds. It 00:21:03.869 --> 00:21:06.490 results in a severe nuclear excursion, which 00:21:06.490 --> 00:21:09.089 in practical terms means a catastrophic meltdown 00:21:09.089 --> 00:21:12.390 or explosion. That is chilling. The ultimate 00:21:12.390 --> 00:21:15.269 symbol of global capitalism, a shape drawn by 00:21:15.269 --> 00:21:17.349 exhausted colonial merchants counting silver 00:21:17.349 --> 00:21:20.289 coins, is literally used by modern physicists 00:21:20.289 --> 00:21:22.829 to measure the exact millisecond a nuclear reactor 00:21:22.829 --> 00:21:24.690 goes critical. You really cannot write a better 00:21:24.690 --> 00:21:27.130 metaphor than that. No, you can't. It is a striking 00:21:27.130 --> 00:21:29.970 poetic repurposing of the symbol. It perfectly 00:21:29.970 --> 00:21:32.650 illustrates how human systems operate. We inherit 00:21:32.650 --> 00:21:34.650 these artifacts from the past, we strip them 00:21:34.650 --> 00:21:36.990 of their original context, and we relentlessly 00:21:36.990 --> 00:21:39.589 adapt them to solve the specific mechanical or 00:21:39.589 --> 00:21:42.089 scientific problems of the present. So what does 00:21:42.089 --> 00:21:44.349 this all mean? We started out looking at this 00:21:44.349 --> 00:21:47.990 fixed absolute truth on our keyboards. But what 00:21:47.990 --> 00:21:50.809 we actually uncovered is a ghost. A ghost? The 00:21:50.809 --> 00:21:53.029 dollar sign is the lingering ghost of the Spanish 00:21:53.029 --> 00:21:57.029 Empire's massive silver trade. It is a messy 00:21:57.029 --> 00:21:59.930 monument to the hand cramps of lacy 18th century 00:21:59.930 --> 00:22:03.019 scribes. It is a grammatical rule breaker that 00:22:03.019 --> 00:22:05.859 completely defies spoken language. And it is 00:22:05.859 --> 00:22:07.940 the digital duct tape that hides our network 00:22:07.940 --> 00:22:10.980 files, locks our spreadsheets, and measures nuclear 00:22:10.980 --> 00:22:13.420 disasters. It forces us to recognize that the 00:22:13.420 --> 00:22:15.900 symbols we trust implicitly are rarely designed 00:22:15.900 --> 00:22:18.420 with intention. They are forged by convenience 00:22:18.420 --> 00:22:21.059 and survival. Exactly. So tomorrow, when you 00:22:21.059 --> 00:22:22.819 are sitting at your desk and you hold down the 00:22:22.819 --> 00:22:25.000 shift key and tap the number four to type out 00:22:25.000 --> 00:22:27.079 a price in an email or to define a variable in 00:22:27.079 --> 00:22:29.339 a block of code, I want you to remember that 00:22:29.339 --> 00:22:31.349 you are invoking centuries -old history. Yep. 00:22:31.630 --> 00:22:33.609 With a single keystroke, you are reaching back 00:22:33.609 --> 00:22:35.769 to the bustling ports of the West Indies, to 00:22:35.769 --> 00:22:38.029 the crushing silver mines of Bolivia, and to 00:22:38.029 --> 00:22:41.069 the punch cards of early computing. It is a profound 00:22:41.069 --> 00:22:43.829 connection to the invisible scaffolding of our 00:22:43.829 --> 00:22:46.789 modern lives. It really is. Which leaves us with 00:22:46.789 --> 00:22:48.750 a final thought for you to mull over as you go 00:22:48.750 --> 00:22:51.670 about your day. If the dollar sign became the 00:22:51.670 --> 00:22:54.509 functional backbone of coding languages and digital 00:22:54.509 --> 00:22:56.750 commands simply because it happened to be stamped 00:22:56.750 --> 00:22:58.950 onto the limited keyboards of early American 00:22:58.950 --> 00:23:01.650 typewriters, what other massive foundational 00:23:01.650 --> 00:23:04.470 systems in our modern world are built entirely 00:23:04.470 --> 00:23:06.509 around the arbitrary mechanical limitations of 00:23:06.509 --> 00:23:08.230 the past? Think about that the next time you 00:23:08.230 --> 00:23:08.990 look down at your hands.