01 April 09

Ha ha ha. You probably thought I would wait until 15 April to wear my "money" tie again, but you were wrong, so happy April Fool's Day to you. This day is actually one of those days when we say "Well, it must have happened on some particular day!": BrainyHistory reports that a New Orleans businessman named Oliver Pollock invented the dollar-sign symbol on 1 April 1778. A quick look for documents to back up that claim shows that Pollock's letter to Robert Morris is the oldest known use of "$" but the dating to 1 April is unclear. The symbol seems to have been based on the letters ps in pesos, simply transferred over to "dollars."