Dollar Rules in Finance

1916

Paris, Sept. 19. — Max Hoschiller, in an article in the Temps, contrasts America's financial position now in respect to foreign countries with what it was before the war. The article says:

"Then the United States was sending to Europe from $200,000,000 to $300,000,000 in interest on its borrowings, $150,000,000 to $200,000,000 spent by tourists, $100,000,000 to $150,000,000 to expatriates and $20,000,000 to $40,000,000 in ocean freights.

"Since the war the United States has imported $730,000,000 in gold and has paid back a considerable amount of its previous borrowings, has increased its foreign trade by $2,250,000,000 yearly and has loaned to foreign countries $1,470,000,000 so that the dollar now has replaced, to a considerable extent, the old sovereignty of the English pound abroad.

"Whether the United States will retain, with her deficient financial organization, the position recently won, will depend upon American financial and commercial policies. The arrival in France of an American commercial mission is an indication that Americans are realizing they must follow the law of exchanges between countries, buying in general, as much as they sell."

The Lafayette Dollars

1900

Readers of The Companion have not forgotten the American monument to the Marquis de Lafayette, which is to be erected in the city of Paris by the aid of subscriptions raised by the school children of the United States. By an act of the last Congress, the United States mint was authorized to strike off fifty thousand silver dollars with a special design commemorating the setting up of this monument, and to turn the coins over to the association which has in charge the erection of the monument in Paris.

By this association the dollars will be sold for two dollars apiece. The sum of one hundred thousand dollars thus realized will be added to the fund for the monument.

On December 27, 1899, the director of the mint, Mr. Roberts, presented to President McKinley the first of these dollars which came from the mint, and Mr. McKinley announced his intention of presenting it in turn to the President of the French Republic, Monsieur Loubet. This, in fact, was done on the third of March.

On one side of the coin are the heads of Washington and Lafayette, and on the other is a reproduction of the proposed monument. Across the face of the monument is this inscription: "Erected in the Name of the School Children of the United States, Paris, 1900." — Youth's Companion.

The Dollar Sign

1909

A Theory as to the Origin of This Monetary Symbol

The origin of the dollar mark is one of the curios of our financial history.

In the early days of the nation, there was utter confusion in the circulating medium. Several of the colonies had authorized coins of different denominations, and, besides these, there were English pence, shillings, crowns and half crowns; French coins brought from Europe and Canada; Spanish coins of half a dozen denominations, especially reals and doubloons; Mexican coins; in Pennsylvania Dutch and German pieces, and along the coast Portuguese and even Italian money was often seen, brought by seamen.

The United States mint was established in 1791, and the United States coinage became, of course, the legal tender. The mixed coinage, however, was not at once displaced, but continued in local use, so that it became necessary for merchants in keeping accounts to designate that a bill was to be paid in United States currency, or, if in miscellaneous coins, these were received at a discount. So before the sum total of the bills the merchant was accustomed to write the letters "U. S.," signifying United States money. In the hurry of writing the "S" was often written over the "U;" then the connecting line at the bottom easily dropped off, and to the present day most people unconsciously commemorate the original practice by making the two down strokes first, then adding the "S."