Why Is The Dollar Sign A Letter 'S'?

The letter 'S' appears nowhere in the word "dollar", yet an 'S' with a line through it ($) is unmistakably the dollar sign. But why an 'S'? Why isn't the dollar sign something like a 'D' (like the former South Vietnamese đồng, or the totally-not-a-joke-currency Dogecoin)?

There's a good story behind it, but here's a big hint: the dollar sign isn't a dollar sign.

It's a peso sign!

Bohemian Rhapsody
Though the dollar and peso symbols are inextricably linked, the origin of the word "dollar" is rooted  elsewhere. Its story begins in 1500s Bohemia, a central European kingdom spanning most of today's Czech Republic.

Central Europe had just become rich with silver. After centuries of sending its silver (and gold) abroad in trade for consumable luxuries like silk and spices (very little of which ever found its way back), new sources of silver ore were discovered in Saxony, German Tyrol and Bohemia. 

With far more silver than still-scarce gold, Tyrol began replacing its teeny-tiny gold coins with big heavy silver coins of equal value. The newly-minted guldengroschen coin, 32g of nearly-pure silver, was an instant hit.

Fast forward to 1519. The Kingdom of Bohemia's Joachimsthal region was finally producing enough silver to begin minting a heavy silver coin of its own. 

This new Bohemian joachimsthaler coin improved on the guldengroschen, adjusting the weight and purity slightly to make the coin evenly divisible into existing European weights and measures. 

It rapidly became the new European favorite, and soon most anyone with silver was minting their own version. The thaler suffix came to refer to any and all of these similar heavy silver coins . . . 

And over the next few decades the thaler coins came to have several transliterated variations on their names: the Slovenian taler, Dutch daalder, and in English, the word thaler became dollar.

http://observationdeck.io9.com/why-is-the-dollar-sign-a-letter-s-1683940575

Silver Bar from Shipwreck Fetches Big Bucks at Auction!

In the winter of 1740, a merchant ship sank in the English Channel just miles from the coast of England. The Rooswijk fell victim to the Goodwin Sands, an area of the English Channel that is highly trafficked and is constantly changing depths with the tides.

With more than 2,000 shipwrecks in the region, it takes a lot for one to stick out. But the Rooswijk is no ordinary shipwreck.

The Rooswijk served as an important vessel for Asian and European trade. Asia had fabric and spices Europeans wanted, and the Dutch had gold and silver, which was in high demand in Asia. 

Owned by the Dutch East India Company, the Rooswijk was on its second voyage from Amsterdam to the Dutch East Indies when it went down.

Captained by Daniel Ronzieres, the Rooswijk carried two hundred passengers on its second voyage, none of whom survived. In addition to the passengers, the Rooswijk was carrying all kinds of treasure. Ten chests of silver coins—and an unknown number of silver bars and gold coins—were on board.

Though the shipwreck occurred well over two hundred years ago, that was not the end of the Rooswijk's story. Twenty years ago, an amateur diver located the shipwreck. 

The next year, a treasure hunting team began salvaging some of the treasure on board. Among the loot recovered were one thousand bars of silver and gold coins.

Last month at Schulman b.v.'s auction in Amsterdam, a silver bar from the wreck—weighing 75.45 troy ounces—was sold. Before the auction, it was estimated at $3,349. The silver bar sold for $6,201, almost $3,000 more than expected.

http://www.kgw.com/story/life/shopping/goldcoins/2014/08/11/silver-bar-shipwreck-fetches-big-auction-bucks/13920801/