#19 Dollars & Cents

19 Dollars & Cents


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Do you know how the U.S. dol­lar sign came about? To des­ig­nate Unit­ed States cur­ren­cy apart from that of oth­er coun­tries, the numer­al amount was pre­ced­ed by a U super­im­posed over an S.

Even­tu­al­ly the bot­tom curve of the U was cropped off & the dol­lar sign became two ver­ti­cal, par­al­lel lines on top of a cap­i­tal S.

That explains why there are some­times two par­al­lel lines in the dol­lar sign. Just one line, or lines that do not extend ful­ly from top to bot­tom, as is more com­mon today in most fonts & is just a sim­pler rep­re­sen­ta­tion of what it real­ly stands for, the “U” in “Unit­ed States.”


listen up!
PRICE INCREASE! This edi­tion was released on April 1, 2012, with a head­line announc­ing Amper­Art would no longer be free. I would have to charge per edi­tion, per sub­scrip­tion, what­ev­er, just any­thing at all so I could end the announce­ment with the words “April Fools.”
I was flat­tered when some sub­scribers who read the announce­ment but missed the punch line com­ment­ed, say­ing they would glad­ly pay for their Amper­Art pieces. Maybe next time I’ll leave off the “April Fools.” (Just foolin’.)
One per­son, a long-​time sub­scriber who has become a friend through our con­ver­sa­tions, says he looks for­ward to Amper­Art every month; it’s one of his joys in life. Thanks, Lar­ry.

Production notes:
Original size: 20 x 30 inches
Program: Photoshop
Font: Engravers Text
Ampersand: hand-​drawn, based Baskerville