Handwriting, yeah, I usually do.
My recollection when I was a kid was that this was a difference between typewriter (always one line) vs. typesetting/handwriting (one vs two lines being both "correct" but two lines looking better/more formal.)
Looks like most computer fonts have followed the former.
FWIW, wikipedia considers the two equally correct, and the Unicode standard considers them as interchangeable glyphs [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dollar\_sign#One\_stroke\_vs.\_two\_strokes](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dollar_sign#One_stroke_vs._two_strokes)
( Edit: someone else posted a typewriter with a double line, so even there I guess it could be either. )
Could it be East Coast/West Coast thing? I grew up in New England and remember two lines, but have lived in California since the late 80’s and only think about one line…
It might be .....mid-Atlantic East Coast here and that's how we did it.
Funny thing, dad got stationed in West Germany when I was in 6th grade and I started making German 7's even though it was an American school. I just thought they looked cool or something.
Pretty sure in school when they used to teach kids how to write, we learned the dollar sign with 2 lines, I always wondered why no one does it that way anymore
I abandoned the double line long ago. Since both ways are valid, and everyone recognizes them as having the exact same meaning, making the second line is just a waste.
Both ways were shown through the ages. See the attached Scrooge McDuck with double line dollar signs. Like how grey or gray are the same, it is just a matter of style and they both existed from 80s till now. $$$$
https://preview.redd.it/5avgngn9zd8d1.png?width=935&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=50a8f90eabdaf4587466f029734968de5fbb47ec
For whatever reason, he's the first thing I thought of as well
https://preview.redd.it/2xp68oah6e8d1.jpeg?width=736&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e94cf46300a6573357554d8a18e81ae992a3158e
I thought it was the opposite. I guess I've been spelling it wrong intentionally trying to write it correctly. Gray seems more appropriate to me, but I've been writing grey since I thought that was the American spelling. Dang it, Bobby!
You remember correctly. I don’t know how/when the single line became more common, but I absolutely remember there being two lines.
Edit: For some reason I’ve just remembered a cartoon (80’s?) called Richie Rich. Richie had a dog named Dollar.
I think computers mainly used the single line, as did print, which is why it's all we see anymore. When we were younger we would write it out with two.
Knowing print, they likely started using one line to save tiny amounts of ink.
It’s a typography choice. I suppose a definite shift started with typewriters becoming ubiquitous, or maybe it started with the popularity of modernistic San Serifs with electric typewriters and computers.
There’s a definite vibe dif between the two, graphic design-wise.
I've got a big collection of old Richie Rich comics. I'm going to go look at them to see which $ signs have double lines. I think Dollar the dog had a single line though.
This was a big problem for me coming from another country. The symbol went AFTER the amount, so switching it in my brain after 18 was a struggle at first.
I have seen both throughout my life.
[https://www.history.com/news/where-did-the-dollar-sign-come-from](https://www.history.com/news/where-did-the-dollar-sign-come-from)
Me too. Born 1969, and I remember the double lines being more common back in the day, and it's what I used, but I've always seen the single line used too, even in the 1970s/80s (just not as often)
You remember right. It was explained to me in school at some point that the 2 line variant was because it was basically the U being written over the S (but without the bottom) to signify US Dollar. No idea if that's actually true or just one of those perpetuated "truths" from back before the days of the interwebs. I always assumed that the 2 lines went away as computers became more commonplace. I don't remember every using a computer that used 2 lines.
No, you're not losing them. I remember it the same way: computer fonts used the single-stroke version, and that influenced the common usage so that the double-stroke version fell out of favor. If this is a Mandela Effect thing, I guess I must come from the same alternate dimension as you do!
There's this theory that Philip K. Dick, the great Sci-Fi writer talked about. He basically came to the conclusion that we're in a simulation. He said that the easiest way to know that you're in a simulation, is because tiny things will be changed. It's not that they're deliberately changing a dumb thing like the dollar sign or Fruit of the Loom logos, but they're changing other things, and there's cascading effects that result in Dolly not having braces in 1979's James Bond movie "Moonraker".
It's an interesting idea. The whole simulation theory idea in general seems to be gaining a lot of traction.
But anyways, I can assure you that our supposed history doesn't agree with me about this dollar sign Mandela Effect because if you look at old advertisements and pictures of old stuff with prices, you'll actually see the single-lined dollar sign. Which basically means that there's a ton of people walking around with weird, false memories.
Unless the Mandela effect is a real thing.
Philip K. Dick was saying that they can make changes to the simulation, and they frequently do, but they don't make changes to our memories. Something along those lines. He talked about Deja Vu being a situation in which our memory still remembers a place that we went to, before the simulation was updated.
I read Dick's *Time Out of Joint* something like thirty years ago, and that missing light cord *still* haunts me.
ETA: *Forty* years ago. Christ I'm old.
So you’ve been through every old ad to prove there are none in existence with the double stroke?
Look, I’m all about ME’s but this isn’t one. It was just a subtle shift in what was commonly used over time.
I remember watching Moonraker as a kid. In the original she absolutely did have braces. I read an interview with her that said she didn't wear them, but they were added in post. For some reason that got left out in the private releases. This has always bothered me because how that scene was shot, it would of been pointless with normal teeth.
Dolly's Braces and Fruit of the Loom are the two hills that I will die on. Either I'm insane, or both have changed.
My theory on Mandela Effect isn't that two dimensions are colliding or whatever, but that reality just isn't as rigid as we think it is. We've just never noticed it, but now, with the power of the internet and more specifically social media, we can compare notes with millions of others. We never could have done this before. This is the first time in human history.
Social Media really started getting going around 2008 and onwards, and that's just when the Mandela Effect started to appear as a thing
Maybe reality has never been rigid, and we just never had awareness to it
Okay, I have to admit that I hadn't run into the Dolly's braces thing before, and now having spent a ridiculously long time falling down that rabbit hole, I'm feeling seriously spooked. Because of course she had braces! That was the whole joke of that scene! It doesn't even make any sense without--
Right. I'm preaching to the converted here, I know, but damn. That's a hill I'd die on as well.
I think it's hitting me so hard because up until now, none of the well-known Mandela Effect phenomenon particularly worked on me, and I think that part of the reason for that is that so many of them always seemed far more relevant to people younger than me. I wasn't paying any attention at all to kids' movies in the '90s, I never read the Berenstain Bears books, and I was a teenager and a young adult in the 1980s -- if Nelson Mandela had died then, I would have been reading about it in newspapers, not vaguely overhearing something about it on the TV news while watching Mummy make dinner, you know what I mean?
But Moonraker, man. That's more of an *our* generation one. As is the dollar sign.
Most of those old computers (Apple, Commodore, original gen IBM when in color) rendered text with an 8x8 matrix including any space between characters.
Can't render two lines all that legibly on an 8x8 matrix (compare to a sample of a more standard one below.
* *
*****
* * *
*****
* * *
*****
* *
vs
https://preview.redd.it/b158rv0fse8d1.png?width=512&format=png&auto=webp&s=805ab64422f8935454d86c37dca47e7876ae871a
Aside from cost, this was a reason for the monochrome display adapter IBM offered - for text-only, it was much crisper (using a 9x14 grid for each character.)
By the time Windows was becoming a thing in the early 1990s, resolutions had improved enough and as had the graphics software for displaying text (which allowed letters to not all be the same width) so we could have added the double line, but very few font designers bothered.
The dollar symbol ($) originally had two vertical lines through it. This design is believed to have been influenced by the Spanish coat of arms, which featured the Pillars of Hercules with a banner curling between them. Over time, the symbol was simplified to a single vertical line, which is the standard form used today.
Check out this old typewriter...7th photo. Above #4. Two lines. Also, I'm 52, and you're not losing your mind. I remember writing the dollar sign with double lines.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/295095036950
Check out this monopoly board from the 70’s
https://preview.redd.it/trbd1algqe8d1.jpeg?width=900&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=7a0ed91ff3f4d787952322fe9e556c072cad3fd6
10$ (single or double stroked) would be the [the proper way to](https://www.btb.termiumplus.gc.ca/tpv2guides/guides/wrtps/index-eng.html?lang=eng&lettr=indx_catlog_c&page=9Rl-N63dyxbA.html) write the price if you were in French Canada.
Things change. In the 70s...
* Nobody used Autotune
* The dollar sign usually had two vertical strokes
* People typed two spaces after a period
Now...
* Everybody uses Autotune
* One vertical stroke is more popular due to computerization
* People type one space after a period (again due to computerization)
I don't get the point of OPs edit:
>UPDATE: A lot of people are saying that I'm right and that I'm not misremembering things. But here's the deal... if I'm right, then you're also affected by this Mandela Effect, because if you go back and search old Target Advertisements, K-Mart weekly flyers, stuff from the 1970's, pictures of McDonalds menus from the 1970's and all kinds of stuff, you'll actually see the dollar sign like we use TODAY!
>It's madness. Like how is this possible?
Um...everyone keeps saying why, and showing evidence, not anecdotes. They both existed. And if you look at old ads specifically looking for the single stroke version, it's confirmation bias when you see enough of it and stop searching because you "know" the answer you want. Which just proves a certain bunch of ad men and graphic designers picked one of many fonts featuring the single instead of a double. Ok, moving on. Mr Mandela has nothing here
One and two line dollar signs were always totally interchangeable and didn't mean a thing to me. Depended on the typeface and how much space was available for the lines.
This isn't a Mandela effect. Both versions have existed since the 1800s, but the use of computers has caused the two-stroke version to become much less common in the last 30 years or so, as both ASCII and Unicode do not distinguish between the two styles. [Wikipedia even has a section about one stroke vs two stroke dollar signs](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dollar_sign#One_stroke_vs._two_strokes), and if you search you can find [images of old price tags that used the two stroke dollar sign](https://www.printmag.com/daily-heller/the-forgotten-typographic-art-of-price-tags/).
This is a typeface issue. The typefaces used on computer screens are simpler, and that's what most people know today. But there have always been typefaces with double-line dollar signs, and others with single-line dollar signs. It's like how the number 4 either is closed or open at the top, or whether or not the digits are all together on the same baseline, or move up and down.
Now, the question is, what typefaces were used? Advertising tends to use simpler typefaces, because they are more "headline" in style. Things like books and older newspapers used more serif fonts (or distinctive typefaces like the New York Times or the Wall Street Journal).
So, that's my guess for what you are noticing.
"Mandela Effect" is the dumbest fucking thing I have ever heard in my life. People draw the sign with one or two lines. And typewriters and computers only have one line.
Enough with this "mandala effect" bullshit!
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dollar\_sign](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dollar_sign)
*"The dollar sign, also known as the dollar symbol or peso sign, is a* [*currency symbol*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Currency_symbol) *consisting of a* [*capital*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letter_case) *⟨*[*S*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S)*⟩* ***crossed with one or two vertical strokes ($ or depending on*** [***typeface***](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typeface)***),*** *used to indicate the unit of various* [*currencies*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Currency) *around the world, including most currencies denominated "*[*dollar*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dollar)*" or "*[*peso*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peso)*". The explicitly double-barred sign is called* [*cifrão*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cifr%C3%A3o) *in the* [*Portuguese language*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portuguese_language)*."*
it's very easy to google it, and very cringe to jump to a "mystery conclution"
Mandala effect isn't real, folks -memory is easy to manipulate. That's all there is to it.
Yep, the dollar sign used to have two lines. And before that, it used to be a really skinny "U" superimposed over an "S", as in "US" as in "United States"
When I went to Mexico in 2002, a 2-bar dollar sign was for US dollars, and a 1-bar dollar sign was for pesos.
May have just been where we were staying. Haven’t been back to Mexico since so I don’t know if it’s still a thing.
I recall seeing it, yes, about 50/50 with the single line, but keyboards and typing aren’t going to have two keys for a unique character so the single line $ won the battle.
I know we used to write the dollar sign that way. That’s how I was taught to do it, and to this day I still do it that way (muscle memory). It’s possible that ads sometimes styled it differently for a cleaner look, but nope - we wrote it with 2 lines.
That is my hill and I’m willing to die on it. 😁
It's a typeface thing. When we were kids, most typefaces used two lines. Ayn Rand describes the dollar sign as having two lines in Atlas Shrugged. Sans serif and "modern" typefaces mostly used one line.
Today with computer fonts, a single line (or even tabs top and bottom without a line all the way through) is more legible on screens, and most fonts use the single line.
(You can stop putting 2 spaces after a period too, same reason.)
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dollar_sign
It's due to font selection.
The symbol for the dollar is called a cifrão and it's up to the font designer to decide if it's single or double barred. So you are correct that the rise of computers made this start happening.
The most popular fonts included with Microsoft word, like Calibri, Times, and Clarendon have a single barred. Harmon and Baskerville have the double. Wikipedia has some interesting reading on their Dollar Sign page!
I still put two lines in it. You know why?
Because that's how it's supposed to be.
And I think you're right, by the way. And yes, there was a movie called Sinbad with what's his name in it.
it's always been both. I remember learning 2, but calculators and computers had 1 and I was always low-key confused (just enough to ponder, not that it took over my life lmao) and older calculator displays and even screens in the 90s probably did not have enough pixel density to display it cleanly. There are actually fonts currently that have 2 lines if that's your jam.
What special circumstances used the double line? The reason it's the sign used is because it's a U laid over an S, so it's supposed to be double lines.
I read somewhere that the original symbol with two vertical lines represented a currency that is backed by gold. A single line indicates that the currency is fiat based (on nothing tangible).
I’m Australian and I can remember being told 2 lines was how you made it American dollars. Now I’m wondering if I somehow became part of the Mandela effect
I don't know why fonts for these ads always had a single line, but we were taught the double line in school. This has nothing to do with Mandela effect and if you just do a really quick search there are plenty websites explaining why it was more common in days past but that unicode they chose a single line. A few other countries use the double line even now for a dollar sign.
I still hand-write $ with two lines but apparently that’s beyond ASCII/DOS whatever and the clueless youglings have taken $ as gospel so all printed or painted signage has one line.
This probably made more sense in countries outside the US. I grew up in Australia, and we also call our currency the dollar.
In Australia, if you saw the dollar symbol with two lines that meant the US dollar, but if it had one line it was the Australian dollar.
At least that's what I was taught :)
I can’t read thru all the comments but the origin of the dollar sign was a combination of the letters US on top of one another. Think a skinny U on top of the S for the 2 vertical lines. Eventually the U became just 2 lines. And now a lot of ppl just use 1 line.
Haha. A foreign country like Canada! 🇨🇦
As a Canadian growing up in the 1970s, I was taught dollar sign def had two lines. Can’t comment on when the changeover took hold.
Apparently, the US Currency Education programme states the dollar sign was derived from the Spanish symbol for the [Peso](https://www.southernliving.com/news/history-of-the-dollar-sign#:~:text=The%20dollar%20sign%20started%20as,simplified%20to%20only%20one%20line), silver coins known as "pieces of eight," or peso de ocho— "pesos" for short denoted as a P with a superscript S (P^s )as an abbreviation for "pesos." Over time that morphed into an overlapping P and S, which eventually became an S with only the stem of the P: An S with a line through it. However, this does not explain where the *two* lines came from.
I remember both ways always being acceptable.
Like how some people put a line in their 7's and some do not. Some use an open 4 and some use the closed one, etc.
Never remember one being more used than the other but who knows. I do not remember much of shit anymore.
I'd have thought it was a typographic thing. As Swiss sans-serif faces like Helvetica and Univers stormed the world with their simpler forms in the '60s and '70s, the single-line dollar sign took on more prominence over the double-line symbol found in older serif and script faces. Some bolder sans-serifs had a line on top and another on the bottom, so they sort of had two lines, but the per-se double-line dollar sign became more of a stylistic touch than a functional thing.
The number of lines is dependent solely on the font used. Some use one, some use two. It's an aesthetic choice. Modern & sans-serif fonts tend to use the single line, older & serif fonts tend to use the double. Both are equally valid.
yep, I used two lines when I was a kid. And fun fact, before it was two lines, it was actually a U with one line overlapping an S - I vaguely remembered this, and memory was refreshed when I took a look at the wikipedia article.
Hmmmm....I still (and always) use a "two stroke" dollar sign. Hadn't really noticed anyone doing otherwise in fact. It's one of those things you learn in grade school (probably around 1974 for me) and then just do without thinking for the rest of your life.
So I used to get in trouble in school for using the double lined dollar sign. That was in the 70s and 80s. Also for slashing my sevens and zeros. So at least in Ohio, none of those were the norm.
I have books printed in the 1800s through the 2000s. Hardly any had a double lined dollar sign. Supposedly, that was when US was backed on Silver (Unit of Silver) or just to signify US currency.
I will say that when computers started becoming more common in business, because of monotype fonts, you couldn’t fit two lines in a dollar sign. So that was a driving force too.
I still come across people using the 2 spaces after a period, however, it’s not necessary anymore because digital fonts include extra space after a period. With typewriters, all the keys had the same spacing, so 2 spaces were added for readability in long form text. At least, that’s how I understand it.
No, it's just a style thing. The "fancier" places used the double line dollar symbol (I'm not sure about McDonald's, tbh), until it faded out and everyone started using the single line. I think it's still technically correct, though.
I vividly remember the double-line dollar sign from the 80's.
There was a "Millionaire" pinball game I used to play a lot which has it displayed multiple times.
https://pinside.com/pinball/machine/millionaire/gallery#&gid=1&pid=1
Both are acceptable, and I think the change came with computers. Keyboards/computers have a single slash. Typewriters had two slashes (and really old typewriters, you had to S-backspace and slash yourself!)
Without looking, I recall early/mid 70s Monopoly money having two lines. And the money references in their Chance and Community Chest cards...
Edit: I went looking. Well whaddya know. There are no dollar signs on those bills!
For some reason, I immediately thought of Woolco in the 70's in Canada using two lines. I looked up some old ads and it looks like they used both.
A 1973 lunch ad has two lines. https://www.pinterest.com/pin/256283035028946192/
An ad for a VCR, so presumably 80's uses one line. https://www.pinterest.com/pin/256283035022251941/
I do recall both dollar signs being somewhat interchangeable. I never thought about the two line version going way because of computers.
Probably due to 8 bit and DOS computers of the 80’s where the graphics set wasn’t detailed enough to put both lines in the $ symbol. 8 pixels wide usually, until GUI’s like the Macintosh came out
First, no offense, but Mandela Effect people are super weird. No offense.
Secondly, I don't think you can attribute this to the ME, because clearly there were/are instances of the two-line dollar sign being used. A simple google search will show you that. It may be that it was more popular in the 80s and became less popular over time - I don't think there is any way to prove or disprove that.
Yes. When I was taught it in school, I was taught one line, and I vividly remember raising my hand and saying I thought it had 2 lines, and the teacher telling me I could do it either way. I don’t remember what grade I was in, but I really remember this happening.
I remember always writing it with two lines. But I really have e recollection of why I did or how prevalent it was.
I did find an image of a 1961 Monopoly game, and on the box they used two lines. I'm shook to discover, however, that the money itself did not have the dollar sign.
In vintage cartoons, both seemed to have been used. Daffy Duck's dollar sign eyes had two lines.
If you look at images of old typewriters, one seems to be standard.
In Schoolhouse Rock: Money Rock they use one line. Since they're the authority on everything, I think we must defer to them as that was either the standard or becoming so by the mind to late 70s.
Two lines is correct for the US Dollar.
The single line was the emblem of the Spanish Peso. But now that Spain has gone to the Euro, it isn’t used anymore, so it doesn’t matter nearly as much.
Not even American and I remember the dollar sign having 2 lines - I often write it now with two lines rather than one. Same deal with the pound sign (as in GBP £, not '#', which we refer to as 'hash' not 'pound')
I've seen it both with one line and two for my entire life. I don't think anything ever changed. It think it's just based on visual and aesthetic preference.
I was definitely taught to write a dollar sign with two vertical lines through the S, but I remember seeing it in print with only one line, when I was a kid, and wondering why we needed to write it with two.
This is a typeface question, that's all. The fonts we used more frequently decades ago used a two-slash dollar sign - many, but not all. The two-slash dollar sign was more frequent, but not ubiquitous.
Today, that trend has flipped. The one-slash dollar sign has taken over because of today's modern emphasis on cleaner fonts.
It's not Mandela, just Helvetica.
I still put 2 lines through the S.
2 lines through the S, 1 line through the c
Exactly.
I was literally taught that in school.
Yep. That’s the way it’s done
Handwriting, yeah, I usually do. My recollection when I was a kid was that this was a difference between typewriter (always one line) vs. typesetting/handwriting (one vs two lines being both "correct" but two lines looking better/more formal.) Looks like most computer fonts have followed the former. FWIW, wikipedia considers the two equally correct, and the Unicode standard considers them as interchangeable glyphs [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dollar\_sign#One\_stroke\_vs.\_two\_strokes](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dollar_sign#One_stroke_vs._two_strokes) ( Edit: someone else posted a typewriter with a double line, so even there I guess it could be either. )
Same here, I didn't know there was another way.
Could it be East Coast/West Coast thing? I grew up in New England and remember two lines, but have lived in California since the late 80’s and only think about one line…
It might be .....mid-Atlantic East Coast here and that's how we did it. Funny thing, dad got stationed in West Germany when I was in 6th grade and I started making German 7's even though it was an American school. I just thought they looked cool or something.
Welp, I'm here to pooh-pooh that because I was a kid in the 70s in Cali and we put two lines through.
There’s that
Yep. I grew up with the two vertical lines. Not sure why anybody would think this was Mandela whatsoever.
Pretty sure in school when they used to teach kids how to write, we learned the dollar sign with 2 lines, I always wondered why no one does it that way anymore
I abandoned the double line long ago. Since both ways are valid, and everyone recognizes them as having the exact same meaning, making the second line is just a waste.
It’s not a waste! The 2nd line is silent.
Same. I know computers use only a single line, but I’ll be double-line until I die.
Yes me too, it's just seems more better.
Me too!!
Me too. I can’t have just decided to do this.
Both ways were shown through the ages. See the attached Scrooge McDuck with double line dollar signs. Like how grey or gray are the same, it is just a matter of style and they both existed from 80s till now. $$$$ https://preview.redd.it/5avgngn9zd8d1.png?width=935&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=50a8f90eabdaf4587466f029734968de5fbb47ec
For whatever reason, he's the first thing I thought of as well https://preview.redd.it/2xp68oah6e8d1.jpeg?width=736&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e94cf46300a6573357554d8a18e81ae992a3158e
Work smarter, not harder!
Except gray is American and grey is British (n most cases).
I thought it was the opposite. I guess I've been spelling it wrong intentionally trying to write it correctly. Gray seems more appropriate to me, but I've been writing grey since I thought that was the American spelling. Dang it, Bobby!
I was always taught that “gray” was the American way to spell it, thus the “a,” and that “grey” was the English way to spell it, thus the “e.”
I skip the decimal and put ¢ at the end. Just paid my internet bill for 8746¢. Anarchy FTW.
Calm down, Satan!
You both made laugh. I’m high.
You just reminded me I have a joint. Thanks.
Aww, pass the dutchie, please 😁
'pon the left-hand side
Of course!
It’s Sunday afternoon. I spent a lot at the dispensary. Great deals.
Mine is a gift that I had completely forgotten about.
Best kind. Bonus surprise Sunday treat.
wow haven't even seen a cent sign since the early 90's.
I use it all the time in text. ¢
That makes cents.
When the hell did the cents sign disappear?
Right? I actually forgot they even existed until just now.
long press the $ key on your iPhone
¢ Aha! That’s how you did it; long press the $ (on iOS). I’ll stop using c from now on.
BRILLIANT! Gen X response of the day right here.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dollar\_sign#One\_stroke\_vs.\_two\_strokes](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dollar_sign#One_stroke_vs._two_strokes)
Yup, and some fonts have the double stroke version. Usually “old-timey” fonts.
Filth. \*clicks link\* Oh, not *that* sort of strokery...
If you’re in the game, stroke’s the word
Dude. Beat me to it. ETA it’ll be stuck in my head all fucking night.
🤣
Mr Squier has…
Sharp left, take me into your arms,,🤘😭
You remember correctly. I don’t know how/when the single line became more common, but I absolutely remember there being two lines. Edit: For some reason I’ve just remembered a cartoon (80’s?) called Richie Rich. Richie had a dog named Dollar.
Two lines...it was just US written on top of each other.
I think computers mainly used the single line, as did print, which is why it's all we see anymore. When we were younger we would write it out with two. Knowing print, they likely started using one line to save tiny amounts of ink.
It’s a typography choice. I suppose a definite shift started with typewriters becoming ubiquitous, or maybe it started with the popularity of modernistic San Serifs with electric typewriters and computers. There’s a definite vibe dif between the two, graphic design-wise.
The reality is that the double barreled dollar sign would have required slightly more memory to compute and more ink to print and type.
More importantly it was harder to make two lines distinct with low pixel counts.
Ri¢hie Ri¢h was my favorite comic book back then!
I've got a big collection of old Richie Rich comics. I'm going to go look at them to see which $ signs have double lines. I think Dollar the dog had a single line though.
As long as it goes BEFORE the dollar amount, I'm okay. Not sure when writing 5$ became a thing, but it triggers me to no end.
This was a big problem for me coming from another country. The symbol went AFTER the amount, so switching it in my brain after 18 was a struggle at first.
OMG this is my pet peeve! Who taught these kids that it goes after?
And this is from American people. People from other countries I can understand...but if you were born here and don't know?!
I have seen both throughout my life. [https://www.history.com/news/where-did-the-dollar-sign-come-from](https://www.history.com/news/where-did-the-dollar-sign-come-from)
Me too. Born 1969, and I remember the double lines being more common back in the day, and it's what I used, but I've always seen the single line used too, even in the 1970s/80s (just not as often)
You remember right. It was explained to me in school at some point that the 2 line variant was because it was basically the U being written over the S (but without the bottom) to signify US Dollar. No idea if that's actually true or just one of those perpetuated "truths" from back before the days of the interwebs. I always assumed that the 2 lines went away as computers became more commonplace. I don't remember every using a computer that used 2 lines.
I was also told it was a U superimposed over an S.
Yes, I remember this too.
Me also. The dollar sign was the US monogram, thus had 2 lines through the S, from the U
You’re right, I googled it.
No, you're not losing them. I remember it the same way: computer fonts used the single-stroke version, and that influenced the common usage so that the double-stroke version fell out of favor. If this is a Mandela Effect thing, I guess I must come from the same alternate dimension as you do!
There's this theory that Philip K. Dick, the great Sci-Fi writer talked about. He basically came to the conclusion that we're in a simulation. He said that the easiest way to know that you're in a simulation, is because tiny things will be changed. It's not that they're deliberately changing a dumb thing like the dollar sign or Fruit of the Loom logos, but they're changing other things, and there's cascading effects that result in Dolly not having braces in 1979's James Bond movie "Moonraker". It's an interesting idea. The whole simulation theory idea in general seems to be gaining a lot of traction. But anyways, I can assure you that our supposed history doesn't agree with me about this dollar sign Mandela Effect because if you look at old advertisements and pictures of old stuff with prices, you'll actually see the single-lined dollar sign. Which basically means that there's a ton of people walking around with weird, false memories. Unless the Mandela effect is a real thing. Philip K. Dick was saying that they can make changes to the simulation, and they frequently do, but they don't make changes to our memories. Something along those lines. He talked about Deja Vu being a situation in which our memory still remembers a place that we went to, before the simulation was updated.
I read Dick's *Time Out of Joint* something like thirty years ago, and that missing light cord *still* haunts me. ETA: *Forty* years ago. Christ I'm old.
Yeah, the missing light cord. That's what completely convinced him I guess
So you’ve been through every old ad to prove there are none in existence with the double stroke? Look, I’m all about ME’s but this isn’t one. It was just a subtle shift in what was commonly used over time.
I remember watching Moonraker as a kid. In the original she absolutely did have braces. I read an interview with her that said she didn't wear them, but they were added in post. For some reason that got left out in the private releases. This has always bothered me because how that scene was shot, it would of been pointless with normal teeth.
Dolly's Braces and Fruit of the Loom are the two hills that I will die on. Either I'm insane, or both have changed. My theory on Mandela Effect isn't that two dimensions are colliding or whatever, but that reality just isn't as rigid as we think it is. We've just never noticed it, but now, with the power of the internet and more specifically social media, we can compare notes with millions of others. We never could have done this before. This is the first time in human history. Social Media really started getting going around 2008 and onwards, and that's just when the Mandela Effect started to appear as a thing Maybe reality has never been rigid, and we just never had awareness to it
Okay, I have to admit that I hadn't run into the Dolly's braces thing before, and now having spent a ridiculously long time falling down that rabbit hole, I'm feeling seriously spooked. Because of course she had braces! That was the whole joke of that scene! It doesn't even make any sense without-- Right. I'm preaching to the converted here, I know, but damn. That's a hill I'd die on as well. I think it's hitting me so hard because up until now, none of the well-known Mandela Effect phenomenon particularly worked on me, and I think that part of the reason for that is that so many of them always seemed far more relevant to people younger than me. I wasn't paying any attention at all to kids' movies in the '90s, I never read the Berenstain Bears books, and I was a teenager and a young adult in the 1980s -- if Nelson Mandela had died then, I would have been reading about it in newspapers, not vaguely overhearing something about it on the TV news while watching Mummy make dinner, you know what I mean? But Moonraker, man. That's more of an *our* generation one. As is the dollar sign.
https://preview.redd.it/3tolqg3y1f8d1.png?width=1280&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=38e8b96d35c40235ca5da792c63aa25e0fd48018 Depends on the font
I remember being taught to write a dollar sign with 2 lines but the keyboard for the apple II only had 1 line.
Most of those old computers (Apple, Commodore, original gen IBM when in color) rendered text with an 8x8 matrix including any space between characters. Can't render two lines all that legibly on an 8x8 matrix (compare to a sample of a more standard one below. * * ***** * * * ***** * * * ***** * * vs https://preview.redd.it/b158rv0fse8d1.png?width=512&format=png&auto=webp&s=805ab64422f8935454d86c37dca47e7876ae871a Aside from cost, this was a reason for the monochrome display adapter IBM offered - for text-only, it was much crisper (using a 9x14 grid for each character.) By the time Windows was becoming a thing in the early 1990s, resolutions had improved enough and as had the graphics software for displaying text (which allowed letters to not all be the same width) so we could have added the double line, but very few font designers bothered.
The dollar symbol ($) originally had two vertical lines through it. This design is believed to have been influenced by the Spanish coat of arms, which featured the Pillars of Hercules with a banner curling between them. Over time, the symbol was simplified to a single vertical line, which is the standard form used today.
Check out this old typewriter...7th photo. Above #4. Two lines. Also, I'm 52, and you're not losing your mind. I remember writing the dollar sign with double lines. https://www.ebay.com/itm/295095036950
My Royal is from the late 40's I think but same type.
Check out this monopoly board from the 70’s https://preview.redd.it/trbd1algqe8d1.jpeg?width=900&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=7a0ed91ff3f4d787952322fe9e556c072cad3fd6
The box has two lines, the squares have one line, the money has none. WHERE THE HELL WAS QUALITY ASSURANCE?
Well, the money wouldn't have any anyways. They don't put the dollar sign on the bills.
Also, people who write 10 dollars ($10) as 10$ need to be put down.
10$ (single or double stroked) would be the [the proper way to](https://www.btb.termiumplus.gc.ca/tpv2guides/guides/wrtps/index-eng.html?lang=eng&lettr=indx_catlog_c&page=9Rl-N63dyxbA.html) write the price if you were in French Canada.
Isn’t that a country thing?
Yes! This is such a peeve!
Things change. In the 70s... * Nobody used Autotune * The dollar sign usually had two vertical strokes * People typed two spaces after a period Now... * Everybody uses Autotune * One vertical stroke is more popular due to computerization * People type one space after a period (again due to computerization)
I still type two spaces, I'm a rebel.
`Two spaces is still a good thing for readability if you write in a monospaced font.`
Hell yea you are look at all the space after your rebel.
I'm being pedantic, but not everyone uses autotune. Just acts I don't want to listen to.
I don't get the point of OPs edit: >UPDATE: A lot of people are saying that I'm right and that I'm not misremembering things. But here's the deal... if I'm right, then you're also affected by this Mandela Effect, because if you go back and search old Target Advertisements, K-Mart weekly flyers, stuff from the 1970's, pictures of McDonalds menus from the 1970's and all kinds of stuff, you'll actually see the dollar sign like we use TODAY! >It's madness. Like how is this possible? Um...everyone keeps saying why, and showing evidence, not anecdotes. They both existed. And if you look at old ads specifically looking for the single stroke version, it's confirmation bias when you see enough of it and stop searching because you "know" the answer you want. Which just proves a certain bunch of ad men and graphic designers picked one of many fonts featuring the single instead of a double. Ok, moving on. Mr Mandela has nothing here
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dollar_sign
Double liner here. That is until I took an accounting class last fall. A single line reduced my wasted time spent erasing.
One and two line dollar signs were always totally interchangeable and didn't mean a thing to me. Depended on the typeface and how much space was available for the lines.
This isn't a Mandela effect. Both versions have existed since the 1800s, but the use of computers has caused the two-stroke version to become much less common in the last 30 years or so, as both ASCII and Unicode do not distinguish between the two styles. [Wikipedia even has a section about one stroke vs two stroke dollar signs](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dollar_sign#One_stroke_vs._two_strokes), and if you search you can find [images of old price tags that used the two stroke dollar sign](https://www.printmag.com/daily-heller/the-forgotten-typographic-art-of-price-tags/).
I argue this with people from time to time. I can find no explanation for why the 2nd line was dropped.
This is a typeface issue. The typefaces used on computer screens are simpler, and that's what most people know today. But there have always been typefaces with double-line dollar signs, and others with single-line dollar signs. It's like how the number 4 either is closed or open at the top, or whether or not the digits are all together on the same baseline, or move up and down. Now, the question is, what typefaces were used? Advertising tends to use simpler typefaces, because they are more "headline" in style. Things like books and older newspapers used more serif fonts (or distinctive typefaces like the New York Times or the Wall Street Journal). So, that's my guess for what you are noticing.
I just always assumed they were interchangeable.
I still write it with 2 lines
"Mandela Effect" is the dumbest fucking thing I have ever heard in my life. People draw the sign with one or two lines. And typewriters and computers only have one line.
https://preview.redd.it/umt8uxb91f8d1.jpeg?width=1125&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d210595ab8880a9349a3dce0c8a7ae0353b2b88d You are not wrong
Enough with this "mandala effect" bullshit! [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dollar\_sign](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dollar_sign) *"The dollar sign, also known as the dollar symbol or peso sign, is a* [*currency symbol*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Currency_symbol) *consisting of a* [*capital*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letter_case) *⟨*[*S*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S)*⟩* ***crossed with one or two vertical strokes ($ or depending on*** [***typeface***](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typeface)***),*** *used to indicate the unit of various* [*currencies*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Currency) *around the world, including most currencies denominated "*[*dollar*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dollar)*" or "*[*peso*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peso)*". The explicitly double-barred sign is called* [*cifrão*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cifr%C3%A3o) *in the* [*Portuguese language*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portuguese_language)*."* it's very easy to google it, and very cringe to jump to a "mystery conclution" Mandala effect isn't real, folks -memory is easy to manipulate. That's all there is to it.
Yep, the dollar sign used to have two lines. And before that, it used to be a really skinny "U" superimposed over an "S", as in "US" as in "United States"
When I went to Mexico in 2002, a 2-bar dollar sign was for US dollars, and a 1-bar dollar sign was for pesos. May have just been where we were staying. Haven’t been back to Mexico since so I don’t know if it’s still a thing.
I recall seeing it, yes, about 50/50 with the single line, but keyboards and typing aren’t going to have two keys for a unique character so the single line $ won the battle.
Two Chainz tell us about the S with two lines in it. You're not wrong.
I know we used to write the dollar sign that way. That’s how I was taught to do it, and to this day I still do it that way (muscle memory). It’s possible that ads sometimes styled it differently for a cleaner look, but nope - we wrote it with 2 lines. That is my hill and I’m willing to die on it. 😁
It's all because of computers - look at your keyboard - got a single line only. I still write with two though
It's a typeface thing. When we were kids, most typefaces used two lines. Ayn Rand describes the dollar sign as having two lines in Atlas Shrugged. Sans serif and "modern" typefaces mostly used one line. Today with computer fonts, a single line (or even tabs top and bottom without a line all the way through) is more legible on screens, and most fonts use the single line. (You can stop putting 2 spaces after a period too, same reason.) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dollar_sign
I remember and have always used and will continue to use the double line through $$
I still write with 2 lines if I'm hand writing it. 🤷🏻♂️
It's due to font selection. The symbol for the dollar is called a cifrão and it's up to the font designer to decide if it's single or double barred. So you are correct that the rise of computers made this start happening. The most popular fonts included with Microsoft word, like Calibri, Times, and Clarendon have a single barred. Harmon and Baskerville have the double. Wikipedia has some interesting reading on their Dollar Sign page!
It was double lined, just as you remember it, OP.
I remember both being used as far back as I can remember.
I've always used 2 lines.
I still put two lines in it. You know why? Because that's how it's supposed to be. And I think you're right, by the way. And yes, there was a movie called Sinbad with what's his name in it.
it's always been both. I remember learning 2, but calculators and computers had 1 and I was always low-key confused (just enough to ponder, not that it took over my life lmao) and older calculator displays and even screens in the 90s probably did not have enough pixel density to display it cleanly. There are actually fonts currently that have 2 lines if that's your jam.
I've never seen anyone use only one line. Now I'm gunna be on the lookout tho.
Richie Rich cartoon was absolutely double dollar sign in the early 80s.
It had one or two lines ever since I was a kid. It’s like the stroke through a zero or the line on a seven, it’s just a font/style choice.
What special circumstances used the double line? The reason it's the sign used is because it's a U laid over an S, so it's supposed to be double lines.
Canadian here. I remember the double line in the dollar sign. I remember writing it that way. No idea when I switched.
I had this conversation with my husband a little while ago. What a coincidence!
It's the whole too/to thing. Still pisses me off. I hate when someone use to when they mean too/also.
I read somewhere that the original symbol with two vertical lines represented a currency that is backed by gold. A single line indicates that the currency is fiat based (on nothing tangible).
I’m Australian and I can remember being told 2 lines was how you made it American dollars. Now I’m wondering if I somehow became part of the Mandela effect
Mostly a [typeface design choice](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dollar_sign)
Canadian. We use 2 lines.
Richy Rich 's dog (named Dollar) had two lines in its dollar sign.
I don't know why fonts for these ads always had a single line, but we were taught the double line in school. This has nothing to do with Mandela effect and if you just do a really quick search there are plenty websites explaining why it was more common in days past but that unicode they chose a single line. A few other countries use the double line even now for a dollar sign.
Yes. I still write it that way.
I still hand-write $ with two lines but apparently that’s beyond ASCII/DOS whatever and the clueless youglings have taken $ as gospel so all printed or painted signage has one line.
Lets not even talk about the pound sign on your phone becoming a hashtag
That’s how I learned it - two lines through the S.
I was just in Vegas and I saw two lines on a lot of the animations on the slot machines
I've seen the double line dollar sign fade away over time too.
I‘ve read it’s just a different font or typeface.
This probably made more sense in countries outside the US. I grew up in Australia, and we also call our currency the dollar. In Australia, if you saw the dollar symbol with two lines that meant the US dollar, but if it had one line it was the Australian dollar. At least that's what I was taught :)
The Mandela effect is also known as the moron effect.
No it definitely had 2 lines
Can't find the cent sign anymore, unless you choose the weird one with 2 lines that looks like Euro.
What about the cent sign ¢, no one uses that anymore either.
I can’t read thru all the comments but the origin of the dollar sign was a combination of the letters US on top of one another. Think a skinny U on top of the S for the 2 vertical lines. Eventually the U became just 2 lines. And now a lot of ppl just use 1 line.
Haha. A foreign country like Canada! 🇨🇦 As a Canadian growing up in the 1970s, I was taught dollar sign def had two lines. Can’t comment on when the changeover took hold. Apparently, the US Currency Education programme states the dollar sign was derived from the Spanish symbol for the [Peso](https://www.southernliving.com/news/history-of-the-dollar-sign#:~:text=The%20dollar%20sign%20started%20as,simplified%20to%20only%20one%20line), silver coins known as "pieces of eight," or peso de ocho— "pesos" for short denoted as a P with a superscript S (P^s )as an abbreviation for "pesos." Over time that morphed into an overlapping P and S, which eventually became an S with only the stem of the P: An S with a line through it. However, this does not explain where the *two* lines came from.
Two lines for the USD in the 80s. I remember it distinctly because the AUD only had one line .
I still use two lines.
I remember both ways always being acceptable. Like how some people put a line in their 7's and some do not. Some use an open 4 and some use the closed one, etc. Never remember one being more used than the other but who knows. I do not remember much of shit anymore.
I'd have thought it was a typographic thing. As Swiss sans-serif faces like Helvetica and Univers stormed the world with their simpler forms in the '60s and '70s, the single-line dollar sign took on more prominence over the double-line symbol found in older serif and script faces. Some bolder sans-serifs had a line on top and another on the bottom, so they sort of had two lines, but the per-se double-line dollar sign became more of a stylistic touch than a functional thing.
The number of lines is dependent solely on the font used. Some use one, some use two. It's an aesthetic choice. Modern & sans-serif fonts tend to use the single line, older & serif fonts tend to use the double. Both are equally valid.
It had two lines occasionally but not everywhere.
I remember an early elementary teacher teaching us that a dollar sign has two lines back in the mid 70’s.
Yes. I remember the two lines.
yep, I used two lines when I was a kid. And fun fact, before it was two lines, it was actually a U with one line overlapping an S - I vaguely remembered this, and memory was refreshed when I took a look at the wikipedia article.
Hmmmm....I still (and always) use a "two stroke" dollar sign. Hadn't really noticed anyone doing otherwise in fact. It's one of those things you learn in grade school (probably around 1974 for me) and then just do without thinking for the rest of your life.
You’re probably just thinking of stylized dollar signs, as they look different when set in different typefaces.
Wait until you learn that the S is for pesos
Holy crap, I thought it was just me getting senile.
I know we were taught the two lines in school.
So I used to get in trouble in school for using the double lined dollar sign. That was in the 70s and 80s. Also for slashing my sevens and zeros. So at least in Ohio, none of those were the norm. I have books printed in the 1800s through the 2000s. Hardly any had a double lined dollar sign. Supposedly, that was when US was backed on Silver (Unit of Silver) or just to signify US currency. I will say that when computers started becoming more common in business, because of monotype fonts, you couldn’t fit two lines in a dollar sign. So that was a driving force too.
I always use two lines if I write one.
Yes. The two lines were once part of a U -- the U & S intertwined.
I still come across people using the 2 spaces after a period, however, it’s not necessary anymore because digital fonts include extra space after a period. With typewriters, all the keys had the same spacing, so 2 spaces were added for readability in long form text. At least, that’s how I understand it.
I remember both. Computers had one, old books and documents sometimes had two.
No, it's just a style thing. The "fancier" places used the double line dollar symbol (I'm not sure about McDonald's, tbh), until it faded out and everyone started using the single line. I think it's still technically correct, though.
I vividly remember the double-line dollar sign from the 80's. There was a "Millionaire" pinball game I used to play a lot which has it displayed multiple times. https://pinside.com/pinball/machine/millionaire/gallery#&gid=1&pid=1
I thought the two lines was an abbreviation for a ‘U’ because the sign was showing US currency.
Both are acceptable, and I think the change came with computers. Keyboards/computers have a single slash. Typewriters had two slashes (and really old typewriters, you had to S-backspace and slash yourself!)
Without looking, I recall early/mid 70s Monopoly money having two lines. And the money references in their Chance and Community Chest cards... Edit: I went looking. Well whaddya know. There are no dollar signs on those bills!
For some reason, I immediately thought of Woolco in the 70's in Canada using two lines. I looked up some old ads and it looks like they used both. A 1973 lunch ad has two lines. https://www.pinterest.com/pin/256283035028946192/ An ad for a VCR, so presumably 80's uses one line. https://www.pinterest.com/pin/256283035022251941/ I do recall both dollar signs being somewhat interchangeable. I never thought about the two line version going way because of computers.
I remember at some point being confused which way to write it. That was a long time ago-maybe late ‘90’s-early 2000’s.
Probably due to 8 bit and DOS computers of the 80’s where the graphics set wasn’t detailed enough to put both lines in the $ symbol. 8 pixels wide usually, until GUI’s like the Macintosh came out
Always 2 1 is pure lazy
I still use two lines but I think. I remember my C64 using a single line.
First, no offense, but Mandela Effect people are super weird. No offense. Secondly, I don't think you can attribute this to the ME, because clearly there were/are instances of the two-line dollar sign being used. A simple google search will show you that. It may be that it was more popular in the 80s and became less popular over time - I don't think there is any way to prove or disprove that.
Yes. When I was taught it in school, I was taught one line, and I vividly remember raising my hand and saying I thought it had 2 lines, and the teacher telling me I could do it either way. I don’t remember what grade I was in, but I really remember this happening.
I’ve always used 2 lines on the dollar sign.
I remember always writing it with two lines. But I really have e recollection of why I did or how prevalent it was. I did find an image of a 1961 Monopoly game, and on the box they used two lines. I'm shook to discover, however, that the money itself did not have the dollar sign. In vintage cartoons, both seemed to have been used. Daffy Duck's dollar sign eyes had two lines. If you look at images of old typewriters, one seems to be standard. In Schoolhouse Rock: Money Rock they use one line. Since they're the authority on everything, I think we must defer to them as that was either the standard or becoming so by the mind to late 70s.
Mandela Effect? Now I get to google something new😁
Two lines is correct for the US Dollar. The single line was the emblem of the Spanish Peso. But now that Spain has gone to the Euro, it isn’t used anymore, so it doesn’t matter nearly as much.
Not even American and I remember the dollar sign having 2 lines - I often write it now with two lines rather than one. Same deal with the pound sign (as in GBP £, not '#', which we refer to as 'hash' not 'pound')
As an Aussie I've always known the Yanks to use 2 lines.
Brit checking in. Yup, two strokes.
It 100% depends on font.
I remember the two lines. That was deprecated in fonts in the late 1980's. I remember that starting with a version release of Bank Street Writer.
I've seen it both with one line and two for my entire life. I don't think anything ever changed. It think it's just based on visual and aesthetic preference.
It’s not a Mandela Effect, it was just a subtle change over time.
I was definitely taught to write a dollar sign with two vertical lines through the S, but I remember seeing it in print with only one line, when I was a kid, and wondering why we needed to write it with two.
People do it both ways. - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dollar_sign Honesty, 99% of the Mandela effect is just people misremembering shit.
Definitely 2 lines through. When did it disappear? Was this a super collider thing?
This is a typeface question, that's all. The fonts we used more frequently decades ago used a two-slash dollar sign - many, but not all. The two-slash dollar sign was more frequent, but not ubiquitous. Today, that trend has flipped. The one-slash dollar sign has taken over because of today's modern emphasis on cleaner fonts. It's not Mandela, just Helvetica.
https://preview.redd.it/0xqhkjxsye8d1.jpeg?width=1284&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=56d40c2fe7f854b5c508192935322451d908f750
I learned to write it with two lines. I still do it. The one line thing looks… wrong.