Since the last century, the Dollar has been the reference currency of the international economic system. Its sign is unmistakable and inseparable from the contemporary world. It personifies wealth, power, possession and even an entire country. A very simple character in appearance: an S crossed by two vertical bars (although its variant reduced to an S crossed by a single bar is more widely used). But what is its origin?
One of the various hypotheses suggests that the key would be in the Spanish heraldry coined by King Charles I of Spain. And more specifically, in those powerful columns that flank the shield of Spain, representation of the mythical Pillars of Hercules that separate the Strait of Gibraltar, intertwined by a sinusoidal band in which is inscribed the motto “Plus Ultra”, beyond. All these elements conveniently ordered would constitute the famous Dollar sign, a symbol that, incidentally, was coined precisely by a country situated “beyond” the Pillars of Hercules…
