Every year on July 6, the United States celebrates the birthday of the dollar.

The dollar sign was invented by the American businessman Oliver Pollock in early April 1778 (the second birthday of the dollar is celebrated in April). At that time, the country’s monetary units were the British pound and the Spanish dollar, which the country abandoned immediately after gaining independence.

The birthday of the American dollar in history

The determination of the dollar as the national currency took place at the country’s congress in 1785. At first, silver coins minted by the Mint were in circulation. The silver content in one coin was 24.34 g. The adoption of the law on the bimetallic dual currency system in 1792 provided for the minting of coins from gold and silver in a ratio of 1:15.

Monarchs were placed on the first paper banknotes. Portraits of persons began to be depicted at the beginning of the 20th century, but only of the dead.

The symbol of the Spanish peseta, in which two dashes above the letter S represent the Pillars of Hercules, which support the Spanish coat of arms, served as a model for the creation of the coin. There are several versions regarding the letter S itself: one testifies to the ending of the plural in the words “peso” or “dollar”, the other – to the origin of the dollar symbol from the number 8, which was present on the image of the Spanish coin equal to 8 reales.

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But the Americans believe that these are the first letters of the name of the country, U and S, superimposed on each other, in which the lower fragment of the letter U disappeared over time. And for the sake of convenience and saving time, the dollar began to be crossed out with a single line, which became the reason for the creation of the dollar sign, which today it is known all over the world – $.