# Is it correct to put two strokes on an australian dollar sign?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-correct-to-put-two-strokes-on-an-australian-dollar-sign/293052>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [March 5, 2005, 6:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-correct-to-put-two-strokes-on-an-australian-dollar-sign/293052 "2005-03-05T06:45:26Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![TheLoadedDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/35a633/32.png) [@TheLoadedDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheLoadedDog)\
**Post date:** [March 6, 2005, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-correct-to-put-two-strokes-on-an-australian-dollar-sign/293052/21 "2005-03-06T23:43:00Z")

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> [@jabiru](#):
>
> I always understood that the two strokes in the US $ symbol (can’t find a two-stroke symbol to use) stood for the letters ‘U’ and ‘S’ written on top of each other. Later usage dropped the loop bit at the bottom of the ‘U’.
> 
> My distinct recollection, although I can find no website to back this up, is that when Australia was converting to decimal currency, we were to use only one downstroke, to differentiate **our** dollar symbol from that of the US.

This is how I was taught it at school in the late 70s.

I have noticed over the subsequent several decades that the rule is not so strict as it was. I think nowadays Americans and Australians alike are more and more often seeing the $ symbol with either one or two strokes as it occurs in the mind of some faceless software designer somewhere, and that this has confused the issue. I think when I write it with pen and paper, that I actually vary.

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**Author:** ![cantara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6f9a4e/32.png) [@cantara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cantara)\
**Post date:** [March 7, 2005, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-correct-to-put-two-strokes-on-an-australian-dollar-sign/293052/22 "2005-03-07T16:40:28Z")

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I notice in Cunctators link that the educational material for the changeover indicates [4 documents](http://www.rba.gov.au/Museum/Displays/_Images/1960_1988/edu_material_1_big.jpg) with a double line symbol…

Why is it that the dollar sign does not appear on the currency? The name is spelled out, but the symbol is not shown (same for Canadian $).

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